


Scrapper

by whimsicalmuffinman



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Genre: Accidental Voyeurism, Blood and Violence, Emotional Constipation, Emotionally Repressed, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Gang Violence, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Light Angst, M/M, Slow Burn, The rating will definitely go up, but better safe than sorry you know?, but like Kaiba bros style hurt comfort where theyre both really bad at it, more tags will be added, the violence isn't vividly depicted
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-04
Updated: 2019-05-29
Packaged: 2019-06-05 10:08:18
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 34,331
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15168380
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whimsicalmuffinman/pseuds/whimsicalmuffinman
Summary: This conversation had not been one that he’d wanted to have, not with his friends and especially not with Kaiba.“Since when do you care so much?”“Did you know you made the news, this morning?”“Huh?”Kaiba silently passed the phone over to Joey, the article that he had been reading throughout breakfast was still on screen—scrolled to the top of the article. The title read, in thick, dark letters: LATE-NIGHT ASSAULT IN NORTH-END NEIGHBORHOOD CONCERNS LOCALS ABOUT EVIDENT RISE IN CRIME RATES IN THE AREA..."The shop and home owners on the line of the northern shopping and residential districts are voicing their concerns this morning following an attack sometime between 9:00 and 9:35 pm last night on the recent rise in apparent gang violence in the area. The whereabouts and identities of the persons involved in the incident are still unknown, and The Domino City Police Department are hoping that our readers can provide information leading to possible identification."





	1. Refuge

**Author's Note:**

> Yeehaw new chapter fic. RIP me.

                Joey hissed, lifting his hand to his face as he limped along the road, the biting cold was seeping into his bones and slowing his movements even further. He pulled his fingers away from his lip, looking at the red stains of blood that had soaked into the fingers of the glove and trying to ignore the screaming pain in his head and the way his vision was swaying.

                He was pretty roughed up, he didn’t think that he was concussed or had anything broken, at least not as bad as the other guy, but he was sure he looked rough, and he was betting that he was sporting a black eye and a split lip at the very least.

                Joey needed to get somewhere warm, where he could call for a taxi or a friend to come and pick him up, but he was nowhere near anyone’s house that he knew. Or… not anyone that he wanted to see anyway. He lingered on the thought, wondering if he really had any choice in this situation at this time of night, wondering if that was really any better than just finding a warm place to hunker down and tend to himself until morning.

                That posed its own problems, he would have guessed that walking in somewhere like this would land him in the hospital, and being in the hospital meant bills that he couldn’t afford to pay.

                “Ffffuck.” Joey hissed again, he really didn’t have a choice. He drew his coat in closer to him, shivering and wincing at the pain of his jaw rattling and tugging at sore flesh. He picked up the pace as best as he could, shuffling through the thick snow, towards the house that he’d wanted to avoid at all costs.

                _The Kaiba mansion_. The building was imposing, sprawling larger than the two residents could ever really need for it to be, and it was surrounded by a wrought iron fence that was gated and locked. Joey grimaced as he limped up to the gate and pressed the call button, the buzz sounding a couple times.

                “Hello, may I ask who it is?” There was a static hum as the voice picked up, despite the decently late hour. Sounded like it was probably one of the service workers.

                “Wheeler… Joey Wheeler.”

                “Do you have an appointment with the master of the house?”

                “No… I don’t.”

                “One moment please.” The speaker went quiet for a few minutes, and Joey rubbed his gloved hands together, trying to warm them, though the insistent creeping cold up along his spine. He could feel his eye was swollen, and his vision was blurred and watery out of his eye, though he could see, thankfully.

                There was the static buzz of the speaker as the voice came through again.

                “You may come in, please pull the gate closed behind you.” And then the lock clicked open. Joey pushed it open, pressing it closed behind him after he’d limped through. It was a short trek toward the front door, but eventually he made it, raising his hand to knock only to have the door ripped open in his face, making his eye widen is surprise.

                “What do you want, Whee—” Kaiba shut his mouth when he processed what he was seeing.

                Joey looked up at him, his lip was split open and oozing blood, and there was dried blood on his nose, from a bloody nose – no doubt. His eye was starting to swell and turn an ugly purple. He looked rather pathetic.

                “What happened to you?”

                “I got jumped by this guy… he… listen, it’s nothing you need to worry about. Can I come in and call a ride, please?” Joey sighed, not having the energy to try and jump through hoops for Kaiba right now. He half expected for him to turn him away, but instead he stepped aside, holding the door open for Joey, watching him shuffle inside.

                “Take off your boots, I don’t want to have to call a carpet cleaner because you can’t be civilized enough not to track mud in.” Joey bit back a retort, but complied, not wanting to get kicked back out onto the street. “The living room is straight down the hall. Who do you want me to call?”

                “I don’t know. You probably have Yugi’s number, you work with him, right? See if you can get ahold of him.”

                Kaiba hummed his assent, turning silently and heading down the hall and disappearing out of sight in a moment. Joey rubbed at his temples gingerly, and heading towards the living room where Kaiba had pointed him. He settled into the seat in the living room, aware, as it sank in comfortably, that this couch was probably worth more than his life. He clasped his already ruined glove over his bleeding lip to make sure that it wasn’t going to drip onto the seat, and he hunched forward onto his knees. Now that he was just sitting, and was slowly warming up to the pleasant temperature that it was inside, he was starting to feel the pain in his face where he’s been struck about the head.

                He groaned, his head was throbbing and it was hurting to try and think about anything, so he tried his best to focus on the pleasant feeling of warmth seeping into his fingers and toes again. He was vaguely aware of the sound of movement to his side, but only really came to attention when he heard a ceramic click in front of him.

                It took him a moment to focus his sight, but when he did, he saw a mug of hot chocolate placed in front of him, and followed the retreating arm up to look at Kaiba, looking less intense than usual, and extending a bag of frozen peas toward him. Joey stared blankly, not processing what he was being asked to do.

                “Why are you handing me… peas?”

                “For your eye. I couldn’t find an Ice Pack, and this seemed like the next best thing.” Joey was surprised that Kaiba had even considered it, but he accepted it none the less.

                “I called Yugi, but he said he’s been snowed in for a few hours. I kind of doubt that you’re going to be able to get a ride from pretty much anyone, actually, it’s gotten pretty bad out.”

                “I thought it wasn’t supposed to snow that bad for a few hours still?” Joey grunted, pressing the cold peas into his swollen eye, frowning at the sting of the pressure.

                “Whether it was supposed to happen later or not, the roads are bad, and it’s not safe to drive.”

                “Fuck.”

                “You were just outside in it, how did you not notice?”

                “It wasn’t exactly the most pressing thing on my mind.” Joey knew that he shouldn’t be snapping at Kaiba, after all, this was the most kindness that he’d ever extended to him, but he was in pain, and he just wanted to go home and sleep until his head stopped throbbing and his eye stopped swelling.

                “Anyway, it’s probably for the best that you stay in for tonight…” Kaiba left the silence hang, as if he was expecting for Joey to connect the dots. Joey was having a hard time believing what he was hearing.

                “You’re asking me to stay here? With you, rich-boy? _In your house?_ ”

                “You’ve stayed on my blimp before.”

                “Different circumstances. Point stands, why would I want to stay here? _With you?_ ”

                “Fine. Then go freeze in the snow for all I care, I was offering for Yugi’s sake, not yours.”

                Joey sighed, heavily, deciding that it probably wasn’t wise to immediately get himself thrown back out onto the street since he just now was starting to warm up, and his eye was getting worse.

                “No, wait, I’ll stay, but I’m sleeping on the couch.”

                “We have a guest room, you know. We’re not savages.” Joey groaned, shaking his head and shooting a burning glare in his direction… or at least the best one he could manage with a bag of peas pressed to his black eye. Kaiba let out a self-satisfied humph, crossing back to the other side of the room, sitting down in one of the plush armchairs and pulling his computer onto his lap, going back to whatever Joey had interrupted him from when he’d come knocking. The silence felt heavy, but Joey doubted any of his attempts to fill the silence would be met with anything but hostility.

                He slumped over onto his own knees, wondering why Kaiba would go out of his way to do this—he specifically wondered if it was something he’d never noticed before if it was a new development. Perhaps Yugi was having some positive impact on him after all.

                He looked back up towards the mug that was sitting on the tabletop, and reached across the table and taking it carefully into his hand, peering into the cup. He’d had bad experiences with food in this household before, but damn if the warmth and sweet smell of the chocolate weren’t tempting.

                “There’s no poison in it, I promise.” Kaiba didn’t even have to look up from his typing to answer the question, and in a sense it reassured Joey.

                “Then I trust it even less.” Joey gave a half-hearted wry smirk, sitting down the peas on the edge of the table and cupping the mug between his hands to warm them. Even if he didn’t drink it, it was still warm, and comforting in a visceral way. He realized, quite suddenly, that it was very hard to read Kaiba. It was humanizing to see him just… existing. Without the flair and the flagrant displays of money… he almost seemed normal. There was still a lot that was out there—the lavish setting they were in at the moment was definitely not something a normal person would have access to, let alone most teenagers (or adults, now, he had to remind himself), but he was living.

                He wasn’t sure if he liked it, it brought Kaiba a little too close to his own level. It became too personal. Kaiba was probably best at two or three arms lengths away, anyway.

                He was disarmed by the soft clicking of the keys of his keyboard, and he let himself relax into the seat a little more, cautiously sipping at the drink and setting it down and replacing the peas on his eye and letting his head rest against the back of the chair.

                Things were silent for a while. A long while. Kaiba seemed content to sit in silence, and Joey was sort of thankful for that, because he was almost sure he wouldn’t be able to come up with anything nice to say to him. The cold feeling of the peas stung for a little while, and then it was pleasantly numb, and it soothed the aching feeling of the bruised eye and his headache along with it. It was probably ten or so minutes, he was guessing, but he figured that was probably good enough for now.

                It was still swollen, but it was easier to see, thankfully. And he wasn’t choking on blood, so that was a good sign that the chocolate wasn’t poisoned, so now he could fully enjoy it without dying. Probably.

                And so it went on like that for a while, until Kaiba eventually closed his laptop and placed it aside. He stood, glancing towards Joey.

                “I’m going to go and rest. Would you like me to show you the guest room, or are you still planning on sleeping on the couch like a disobedient dog?”

                Joey bit back an insult, reminding himself that this was only a one night thing, and that he wouldn’t have to deal with him after tomorrow. He wasn’t about to admit to being a dog.

                “…Alright.” Joey followed, getting to his feet and downing the last of the chocolate without ceremony and sitting it back on the table. Kaiba sneered, but ignored the apparent slight, turning and walking down one of the massive hallways. Joey noted how massive the manor was, and felt a pang of jealousy in his gut that he tried to smash.

                Kaiba pushed open the door to one of the rooms, flipping the light switch for Joey and stepping aside.

                “The bed has been made up already, but there are more blankets in the drawers if you need them. There’s a bathroom attached, so you don’t have to worry about hunting for a doggy door during the middle of the night.”

                “Can you quit with the dog jokes.” Joey hissed it under his breath as he stepped past Kaiba to examine the room, turning slowly and taking in the expensive décor. He turned to say something to Kaiba, but found that he was no longer in the doorway. He trailed back out to the hallway, wanting to catch him before he stowed himself away in his room.

                “Hey rich boy!” Joey watched the muscles of Kaiba’s shoulders tense as he paused to turn and look at him, and there was a brief pause. “Thanks.” Kaiba blinked at him, and made no response before he turned and continued on his way to his room. Joey watched after him for a moment, mulling over the events of the night.

                He pulled the door shut behind him, shedding his heavy coat and shirt until he was in his undershirt, walking into the bathroom and searching for the lights. He winced against the brightness as the vanity blinked to life, and he looked into the mirror, examining his battle scars for the night in the mirror. His lip was split open and starting to scab, and his eye was an ugly shade of purple and really swollen already, but didn’t concern him as badly as he thought it was going to. He shifted his head from one side to the other, but nothing seemed too major, thankfully. He realized, as he was reaching up to touch his face, that he did have some nasty bloodied knuckles though. He hummed thoughtfully, rummaging through the drawers and cabinets of the bathroom and eventually finding a pretty basic first aid kit.

                He couldn’t give Kaiba props for many things, but thankfully being prepared was one of them. He turned on the faucet, gently washing off the dried blood between his fingers and his face, preparing to clean himself up. This wasn’t his first rodeo, he had been quite familiar with this being a daily thing not so long ago, and the movements were almost still just as rehearsed.

                The brief sting of the alcohol wipe, and then the comforting feeling of the bandages plastered over the wounds. He wondered if he was going to have more scars from this—just another to add to the list, he supposed.

                Joey hummed, giving himself another once over in the mirror to make sure he wasn’t missing anything glaring, and then cleaning up his bandage wrappings and swabs. The tiredness was already setting in. Joey glanced at his phone to check the time, realizing that it was almost half past midnight. Some part of him was deeply thankful that Kaiba had decided to take in the lost scrapper that showed up on his doorstep, though he’d never admit that to the man himself, at least not any further than he’d already had.

                He was too exhausted to strip down any further, so he collapsed on top of the bed, letting his body sink into the sheets and groaning involuntarily at the feeling of weightlessness that washed over him. He didn’t even manage to tuck himself in under the sheets before he’d drifted off to sleep.


	2. Changeover

                Joey felt like he weighed a ton when he tried to drag himself out of the bed, trying to shake the cold out of his muscles and blinking slowly. There was a lot to process, his eye was aching still and his body was stiff. More pressing, was the fact that he had no real idea where he was.

                It took him a long minute to remember the events of the night before, it had been so surreal that if he weren’t currently in the Kaiba guest bedroom, he would probably have thought that it all had been a dream. He got up slowly, his body was certainly feeling the brunt of the night before, if nothing else. He shuffled across the room, leaning down and reaching for his shirt, tugging it over his head.

                There was a gentle rapping on the door, he was guessing that was the noise that had first stirred him. Thankfully, he hadn’t bothered taking his pants off last night.

                “Come in.” He called, his voice was still hoarse with sleep. The butler peered into the room, tipping his head respectfully though it made a weird pit settle in Joey’s stomach, he disliked being treated like some young lord.

                “Mr. Kaiba has asked me to come and fetch you for breakfast.”

                “… Breakfast?” Joey asked, almost incredulously. It seemed like this little excursion of his was only going to get more bizarre the longer he stayed in the Kaiba house. He didn’t think he wanted to keep going down this road.

                “Shall I tell him you decline?”

                “Uh. No, I’ll go and talk to him.” Joey stepped around the topic, suspicious of what would happen if he did actually refuse to eat with him. Actually, he was rather suspicious of the whole situation, it had been so long since he’d seen Kaiba that it was a lot to take in—he didn’t know if Kaiba was _capable_ of making that big of a leap in the couple years it had been. Not to mention it wasn’t like they hadn’t seen each other in passing, and almost every time they had it had been like stepping into a time machine and going back to their time in high school, slinging insults back and forth and keeping up a cold wall between the two of them.

                You know, because of the poisoning thing and the trying to kill his best friend thing.

                But if Yugi saw something redeemable in him… then Joey supposed that he could make an effort too. He could probe just a little to see if anything _had_ actually changed. The thought was almost laughable.

                Joey scooped his coat up into his arms, trailing along behind the butler, glancing around and almost certain that if he wasn’t being led around, he was going to get himself lost in such a massive house.

                He nearly ran into the back of the butler as he stopped at the doorway to a dining room.

                “Morning.” Joey recognized the younger of the two Kaiba brother’s voice, and waved at him sheepishly. “You look… bad.” How tactful of him to avoid saying that he looked like shit. It was a little striking, seeing him, though, with how much he’d grown. It made him realize exactly how long it had been since he’d had any extended contact with the two brothers. Not that he’d ever really made an effort to learn anything more about them when he was in high school, he really did kind of resent Kaiba, and was sort of hesitant to say he was too keen on Mokuba, either, the memory of that poisoned food stirred right back to the forefront of his mind.

                “Yeah, well, I bet I look better than he does.” Joey muttered a little more bitterly than he probably intended to. He realized that there was a place set for him, and also that Kaiba was peering at him. He had yet to say anything, and it was making Joey a little uncomfortable, to be honest. Now that he’d spent the night here and slept on it, and wasn’t so focused on the pain that he’d been in, he really didn’t know what to think. It was awkward, to say the least, but it was the first time that Kaiba had shown him any kind of open kindness and not immediately denied it. Or maybe he was denying it, but he certainly made it hard for him to weasel out of it.

                Did it even matter? It’s not like anyone would find out about it other than Mokuba and maybe Yugi, and neither of them were likely to give a shit about what Kaiba did for anyone else. Joey wondered if he should really give a shit either, some part of him was telling him that he should, but he couldn’t help but to feel that this was one big fluke.

                “Are you going to eat?” Mokuba piped up after a long moment, tipping his head and giving him a curious look. Joey crossed the room, sinking down into the seat slowly and staring blankly down at the plate sat out for him.

                “I don’t know if—“

                “There’s no poison in it.” Both Mokuba and Kaiba huffed it out in unison in the same tone of voice. Joey looked over towards Kaiba, who had apparently been engrossed in a news article that he was reading on his phone.

                “If I’d wanted to poison you, I could have done it last night.” Kaiba reminded him, not even looking up at him.

                “I guess you just learn to be cautious eating around the family that poisoned you.” Joey grumbled.

                “I’m surprised you’re capable of learning.” Oh no, Joey wasn’t going to go down this rabbit hole with Kaiba today, he’d just wind up getting angry, and he was tired of arguing with the rich kid. He was too old to be doing things like that anymore. He was an adult, with a job.

                A job…

                “Oh fuck!” Joey’s face dropped as he scrambled for his phone and checked the time, realizing that it was already setting well into midday, and he’d missed a lot of calls from his boss. He scrambled to his feet, turning and ducking out of the room without further explanation for the other two at the table while he fumbled to hit the buttons on his phone to dial his boss.

                He would be the first to admit that it was probably a shameful display, considering that he’d had to bargain for his job and was going to have to pick up a double shift or two, but he was still employed, thankfully. He couldn’t afford to lose his position now, not with it being the off season for the duel monsters tournaments, and he needed to make sure he’d be able to pay for his own living expenses.

                He realized that he heard hushed voices as he rounded the corner, the Kaiba brothers saying something in whispers that stopped the moment he had reentered the room. It was probably something about him, though he didn’t really care. At least he still had a job. He sat back down at the table, reaching for the fork and not bothering to try to force polite conversation with the Kaibas.

                Interestingly, he didn’t have to.

                “How is your eye? Do you need someone to take a look at it?” Kaiba asked, again keeping his attentions down at his phone.

                “I… I don’t think so. I can see out of it alright.” Joey sighed, propping his head up on one of his hands and toying with the food a little bit, trying to decide if he was actually hungry or not. There was another lull in the conversation only broken by the scrape of their silverware on their plates. Joey glanced at Mokuba sheepishly, receiving only a shrug in response.

                The silence grew awkward, and eventually, Mokuba wound up clearing his throat.

                “I’m going to go and work on my… thing for school.” Mokuba said, slipping out of his chair and gently patting Joey on the shoulder. "I hope your eye doesn’t feel too bad for long, Wheeler.”

                Joey glanced toward Mokuba, again struck by the fact that he now had to look up to look Mokuba in the face. Mokuba smiled at him, and Joey found himself somewhat charmed, it felt genuine, like Mokuba had grown up in a thousand little ways that he wasn’t privy to. It made him feel old, in a way that was hard to describe, but was akin to nostalgia.

                “Thanks, Mokuba.”

                Joey focused down into his food, silently taking it into his mouth piece by piece and letting his mind wander in much the same way that he had the night before. It was easier than trying to fill the silence. Again, it had just settled back into comfortability when Kaiba spoke again.

                “So what was it about?”

                “What?”

                “Why did someone hit you?” Kaiba glanced up toward Joey, and watched the way that his muscles tensed up and the way he seemed to tuck into himself more, defensively.

                “Why does it matter to you?” his tone was biting, his eyebrows furrowing. He was getting sick of Kaiba pressing his buttons.

                “It doesn’t.” Kaiba said it casually, as if it didn’t matter at all to him.

                “Then why bother asking?”

                “Because I wanted to know if you were going to be able to make it to your house safely.” Kaiba didn’t raise his voice, but it was enough to make Joey shut up for a moment. He felt a little like he was spiraling—he didn’t understand why Kaiba would care so much about this.

                “I don’t… know.” Joey admitted. He tangled his fingers into his hair, feeling his shoulders tense further, and this conversation had not been one that he’d wanted to have, not with his friends and _especially_ not with Kaiba. “Since when do you care so much?”

                “Did you know you made the news, this morning?”

                “Huh?”

                Kaiba silently passed the phone over to Joey, the article that he had been reading throughout breakfast was still on screen—scrolled to the top of the article. The title read, in thick, dark letters: **LATE-NIGHT ASSAULT IN NORTH-END NEIGHBORHOOD CONCERNS LOCALS ABOUT EVIDENT RISE IN CRIME RATES IN THE AREA.** Kaiba stared at him—through him – waiting for some kind of response.

                Joey kept reading.

_The shop and home owners on the line of the northern shopping and residential districts are voicing their concerns this morning following an attack sometime between 9:00 and 9:35 pm last night on the recent rise in apparent gang violence in the area. The whereabouts and identities of the persons involved in the incident are still unknown, and The Domino City Police Department are hoping that our readers can provide information leading to possible identification._

_One of the residents of the area, Suzuki, Sachiko, who has been a member of the community for nearly two decades now, reported to us on what she witnessed during the scuffle:_

_“It was hard to tell because of how hard it was snowing, but it sounded to me like there may have been one person who was getting roughed up over money, based on the yelling that I was hearing. There was a lot of yelling for a little while before I started hearing the sounds of the fighting itself.” Suzuki stated. The police have concurred with her theory that it was likely over money, and it fits the MO of several other assaults that have happened in the area in the last year. They hypothesize that it could be an indicator of a rise in power of one of the local gangs in the area and a rise in monetary disputes within these gangs._

_“It certainly makes me frightened to go out after dark, especially on nights when it’s bad weather conditions. I hope that the people who were involved in it didn’t wind up seriously injured.” Suzuki added._

_Due to the extreme weather over the last 18 hours, the police have been unfortunately swamped with reports. We spoke with a representative of the DCPD early this morning, and were given the following statements on the situation:_

_“Rest assured that we are doing our best that we can in the situation to check and make sure that the people who may have been victimized are in good health and will be protected. Unfortunately, due to the poor road conditions, our cruisers weren’t able to make it to the scene during the altercation itself, but we are continuing to working on finding out any information that we can. There isn’t evidence that is typical of more extreme violent crimes, like a homicide, and it seems based off of foot traffic evidence we’re looking for anywhere between 2 to 8 suspects, and it seems that all parties were capable of walking away from the situation on their own.”_

_The DCPD would like to request that if you have any information that you contact them via the following means…_

                Joey sighed, rubbing at his temples, feeling the stress already settling back into him. The last thing that he needed was to be dragged into the police department for questioning. Not to mention he had to find a way to cover up this black eye for sure, now. He doubted his boss would be dumb enough to overlook the fact that he had a black eye and has conspicuously missed the day after the assault in the area of the shop.

                “I take it that you know exactly what incident this is referring to.”

                “Yeah, no shit.” Joey snapped, rubbing his hands through his hair, tugging on it and wishing, suddenly, that he could crawl back into bed and let the situation resolve itself. He was in a mess, and he didn’t want to have to deal with it any more.

                “So, eight people, huh?”

                “It wasn’t eight people. It was two or three, I think. I don’t know for sure, it was dark.” Joey admitted. “They caught me when I was trying to call for a ride because the bus service was down because of the weather.” Joey realized that he hadn’t really meant to go that far into detail with it, and that Kaiba was actively trying to pry it from him. Again, he felt the pang of hesitation about talking about this, but he had a feeling that Kaiba wasn’t going to let him off that easily.

                “Two or three people seem like a lot to jump one guy.”

                “It’s a long story…” Joey heaved a sigh, leaning back in his chair. It was a lot to talk about, he didn’t know where to start. He wasn’t hungry any more, in fact, he felt a lot like he might throw up.

                “You should save it for the police.” Kaiba said it like he was offering him an out for the conversation, but Joey scoffed, shaking his head.

                “I’m not going to talk to them…” Joey muttered, looking away from Kaiba and focusing on the other side of the dining room, trying to put the pieces together for what he was going to do. Kaiba made an unusual noise, what might have been confusion.

                “They seem like they’d be the people most capable of solving the problem.” Joey was silent. “Why can’t you tell the police?” Kaiba’s irritation was starting to show in his voice.

                “I’m in a hard place. It’s nothing that concerns you.”

                “What? Involved with a gang? Wouldn’t be the first time for you, Wheeler.” Kaiba’s remarked snidely. Joey’s head shot up, giving Kaiba the most withering look that he could manage.

                “You really think I’d be involved in a gang again? You really are fucking stupid.” Joey didn’t really think it through before he said it, it was his anger getting the better of him, and he braced himself for the inevitable impact—be it Kaiba hitting him or him throwing some scathing remark or another at him.

                “What I’m trying to ask you, Wheeler, is if you think you’re in genuine danger.” Joey deflated, blinking confusedly at Kaiba, getting none of the bite that he’d been expecting.

                “And what I’m trying to ask you is what you really stand to gain from me telling you that.” Kaiba cleared his throat, shifting in his chair uncomfortably and making a face as if he was preparing to tell some dark secret or something.

                “Well, as you know, I employ Yugi, and he’s a valued employee. If he knew that I sat by idly and let harm come to you, I’d never hear the end of it, I’m sure. Not to mention grief is a major negative impact on productivity, and while I don’t typically succumb to that sort of thing, I imagine Yugi would.” Kaiba spoke through a tight throat in a way that seemed almost rehearsed, as if he was afraid to admit outright that Yugi had finally grown on him after whittling away at his walls for years. In spite of himself, Joey’s expression changed, his lips pulling up into a wry smirk.

                “Awwww, you do care.” Joey said it in a sing-song voice that made Kaiba grimace. Joey’s momentary joy settled in quickly though, superseded by the worries that had been tumbling in his mind for a long time now. “I can’t talk to the police, they’ve got too much leverage over my family for me to just go and talk to the cops.”

                “Your family?”

                “Yeah. Like I said, it’s a long story, and I doubt that you really want to hear all of it. I’m sure that you’ve got better things to be doing for your own business.”

                “… I don’t have anything scheduled for a couple of hours. I’ve been teaching Mokuba the ropes of managing the company, but he just said he had homework that he needed to work on.” Kaiba added it on, again making it sound like he was offering Joey an out from the conversation if he needed it. It sort of surprised, Joey would have figured that he would have been pressing more, which had always seemed to be the Kaiba approach to addressing issues.

                “So you’re wasting your few precious hours of free time talking out problems with a ‘dog’?” Joey chuckled.

                “I never said that I’d talk out the problems with you, those are your issues to figure out. Like I said, Yugi wouldn’t be happy with me if I let you get hurt because of something stupid. It’s not like it matters to me if you want to talk or not. I’ve already done as much as I plan to do to help you.”

                “… I see.” Joey hummed, leaning forward and playing with his now-cold food a little more do keep his hands occupied. “It’s not something I wanted to be involved in—my dad racked up a lot of gambling debts back in the day and was working with a not-so-nice crowd during the time, and they’re looking for him to start paying up on the money he owes…”

                Kaiba hummed to acknowledge the thought, but stayed otherwise silent. Joey lifted a bit of the food to his mouth, chewing thoughtfully for a long time, trying to think about how he wanted to put the rest of the situation. He wondered if any of this would resonate with Kaiba at all… after all, he’d probably been rich for so long that he didn’t remember what it was like to struggle, right?

                “… I’ve been helping to pay it off, and he’s been getting better about it… even if it’s not enough, he’s trying to change his ways. Thing is, now that I’m involved, it’s hard to get to be uninvolved. It’s pushed the debt onto me, and it’s… it’s usually fine in the warmer months, when I can travel with the tournament circuits and have a higher income, but when it cools down for the winter and makes travel harder, it’s harder to insure that I can make the payments on time. I’m pretty sure last night was meant to be a warning, I don’t know what would have happened if I hadn’t been able to fend for myself as well as I did. Not to mention they made their intentions really clear.”

                “I don’t see why the blame should fall to you.” Kaiba cut in when Joey paused to gather his thoughts again before he opened his mouth to speak. “It’s not your debt.”

                “It’s not that easy Kaiba. I mean, he’s not the nicest man, and he was a hell of a bad person for a long time, but he’s still my dad. I still care about him. How would you feel if it was Mokuba in that kind of situation?”

                “… Good point.”

                “That’s why I can’t just go to the police… I’m sure if they catch word of it, there’d be problems for me or my dad, and I can’t risk that. It’s a bad situation to be in either way.” Joey gave a final, heavy sigh, shoving more breakfast into his mouth to silence himself. He’d just spilled an awful lot of personal things to Seto Kaiba of all people, and that in itself was a lot to process. It did help to ease some of the weight to share it, but he could still practically feel his hair greying from the stress of trying to figure out the situation on his own.

                “I’ll take a guess that you’re staying with your dad still, then?”

                “No, actually. I’ve got a little place about ten minutes from here. It’s too much of a trek in the snow, but it makes it easier to get to and from my jobs.”

                “Jobs? You have multiple?”

                “Yeah. I work at one place as a server and a bartender at another. I had a third at one point, but it got to be too much and I started losing sleep and got fired from the one for sleeping on the job.” That was more than a little embarrassing to admit. Joey glanced at Kaiba, realizing that the other young man was staring at him. Like he was analyzing him, it was a very similar look to the one that he had on his face when he was doing in field repairs of a duel disk or a projection program. Almost like he was trying to break him down into tiny mechanical parts so that he could understand what was making him tick. Like he was trying to sort through all the little bugs and glitches that were building up to the massive problem.

                Maybe Kaiba would be able to solve the problem. Give him some simple solution, just a quick change that would iron out all the kinks.

                And then, Kaiba said something that seemed to surprise even himself.

                “You’ve changed.” Joey’s mouth fell open, and he was searching for words to match the sudden influx of questions that he had and to try and figure out why he’d suddenly become the subject of the conversation.  Kaiba looked at him for another long moment, as if he was trying to reprocess himself.

                “You have too.” Joey’s mouth moved before he was aware that he was speaking. The words felt bizarre, ringing around in his head. “I guess everyone does when they start to be our age.”

                “You say that like you’re forty.”

                “I’m over halfway there.” Joey found himself laughing, tipping his head down to hide his face underneath his bangs, wondering if it was about to lapse into the same heavy silence as before.

                “You’re only twenty-one.”

                “Twenty-two.” Joey corrected. Kaiba breathed out through his nose, and it took Joey a second to realize that he was laughing. The butler approached from the side of them holding a tray with a French press of brewed coffee as well hot water and supplies for tea.

                “Coffee, sir?”

\---

                It was strange, how easy it was to talk with him, now that the situation allowed for it. The conversation would lull and flow easily. Surprisingly so. Joey found himself relaxing a little, even, at least enough to allow Kaiba to ask questions about his life.

                Joey checked his phone, realizing that it was nearing four o clock, and he needed to get back to his apartment and start getting ready for his shift at the bar that he worked at. He was wondering how he’d managed to let himself be sucked into conversation for so long, especially with someone who he’d hated so much in the past.

                “I should probably head out, I need to get ready for work tonight.” Joey admitted. “I’m going to have to find something to cover up this bruise before my shift.” He gently touched at the skin of his face over where his eye was bruised. Thankfully it wasn’t nearly as painful as it had been, but he was sure that it was purple and black and didn’t look very good.

                “Where do you have work tonight?”

                “Where? I work at the little speakeasy on 3rd.” Joey half expected that Kaiba would make some snide remark about him working in a bar, but it never came.

                “Would you like a ride to your house?” Kaiba offered, and Joey was taken aback, falling silent and staring at him for a long moment. There was prolonged eye contact, to the point where it became awkward. Joey’s work, sure, but he wasn’t so sure about giving out his address willy-nilly. Besides, it really wasn’t that much further, now that he was able to see out of both eyes, and he doubted that the roads were nearly as bad after the city treating them overnight.

                “I don’t think it’s necessary.” Joey averted his gaze, his fingers entwining in the hair at the base of his neck, a nervous habit of his.

                “It’s just an offer, I’m not going to force you.”

                Joey stared down at the polished wood of the dining table, tugging at the baby hairs at the nape of his neck and debating with himself. If he accepted, he would be able to comfortably go out and buy makeup, shower, and get ready for work with plenty of time to spare to walk to work. If he didn’t accept, it would be pretty tight, and he risked running into more trouble on the way home sporting the shiner that he did. There didn’t seem to be any downsides to accepting the ride… well, except for one. It would mean that he would owe Kaiba more than he already did. He couldn’t lie to himself and pretend that his generosity didn’t feel a little suspect.

                “Awfully generous of you.” Joey ventured, not hiding his suspicion as he glanced at Kaiba. Kaiba seemed to pick up on it, and for a moment Joey was keenly aware of the way Kaiba’s expression showed the places that his face had creased over the years in worry.

                “I was actually speaking to Mokuba, about it.” Kaiba sighed, clasping his hands together and propping himself up against them, covering his mouth as he spoke. “He voiced some concerns about your safety when you left the room, and asked that I give you a ride. I told him that I would at least try.”

                “So you’ve still got that soft spot for your brother, huh?” Joey laughed.

                “Well, the Yugi thing wasn’t a lie either, he would be royally pissed at me if I let you get hurt because you’re a stubborn dick.”

                “I guess I have no choice then, do I?”

                “I guess not.”

\---

                Joey breathed out a sigh, glancing at the clock, happy to see that it was nearing 2AM, rapidly ticking down till last call, and that meant that he was very close to having a lovely date with his bed. He was feeling rather exhausted, having gotten up so early in the Kaiba household that morning. He dried the last of the water out of a freshly washed Weizen glass, slinging the dishtowel over his shoulder as he stood on his tip-toes and slotting the end of the glass into the overhead rack.

                “Hey, Wheeler, we’ve got someone asking for you at the other end of the bar.” His co-worker, short and with hair the color of fire, brushed past him with a practiced ease despite the tight squeeze. “He’s pretty handsome, you sure do have little barflies show up for you, huh? Must be nice to never have to go home alone.” She said it in a sing-song, teasing tone.

                “Oh shush, you know I wouldn’t come onto someone whose been drinking. The designated driver, however, is another story.” Joey shot back, just as playfully, in spite of his tiredness. He lifted another glass up, setting it in the holder.

                “Well, go on, he seemed to want to talk to you. The tall brunette on the end.” A brunette huh? _And tall too_ , sounded like they were exactly his type. Maybe he’d end the night with a phone num—

                _Oh Christ_. His train of thought slammed to a halt as he realized that the person who was asking for him at the other end of the bar was none other than Seto Kaiba. He definitely had never expected for him to show up at his work.

                “Hey, Tsukuda, cover my end of the bar for a minute, will you?” Joey didn’t even look back over his shoulder as he asked it, and walked forward, ignoring her dramatic sigh.

                Kaiba looked moody when he was lit with the dim, orange glow of the bar lights, mature and handsome in a way, though Joey knew him too well to be tricked by the way the warm light made him look. He may have changed a bit, but Joey was still unsure of him. It didn’t matter that this felt like it was a world apart from the Kaiba who would have refused him medical attention on a blimp and almost blow up him and all of his friends on a deserted island, it was still, well, _Kaiba_.

                “What are you doing here?” Joey tried not to let his irritation seep into his tone, he’d be lying if he’d said that he hadn’t been hoping that this afternoon was the last time that he would ever see the stupid rich kid who tried to make his life hell in high school.

                “I thought I’d come in for a drink.”

                “So you couldn’t have gone to any other bar?” Joey glanced around to see if anyone else was listening to their conversation before dropping his voice down low. “Cut the bullshit, Kaiba, why are you here?”

                “Get me a whiskey.” Kaiba demanded. Then, as an afterthought; “Please.”

                Joey stared at him for a long moment, gritting his teeth, suddenly sucked back into those feelings of infuriation that he’d though he’d left in the past. Maybe nothing really had changed with Kaiba, he certainly seemed to have no problem treating him like shit now that he was back in public. Joey grumbled as he leaned over, reaching for a lowball glass and scooping ice into it from the trough, sliding it onto the wooden bar counter. He turned, reaching onto the back shelf of the bar, glancing over the bottles and picking one that he knew tasted like bitter cough syrup, and pouring it over the ice in the cup.

                “There, rich kid. Or do you want a _fancy little umbrella_ for it too?” Joey’s tone was venomous, though Kaiba seemed unphased, levelling him with a cool stare. “Now why are you here to bother me at work?”

                Kaiba didn’t answer immediately, lifting the glass of booze and swirling the honey colored liquid for a moment and staring into it before taking a long drink of it. It clicked loudly against the bar as he said it down, fingers tapping against the side of the glass underneath the din of the bar.

                “I came to take you home.” Joey could tell that he gaped for a minute, reeling a little as Kaiba looked back up at him. He disliked the way that a shiver ran along his spine, he didn’t like the feeling that Kaiba could do that to him.

                “Whoa, uh, listen, at least take me out to dinner and drinks, first.” Joey tried to be cool saying it, though his voice pitched upward slightly, and it was definitely enough to give him away.

                “Get your mind out of the gutter, Wheeler.” Kaiba recoiled visibly, and there was a wash of relief over Joey. “I meant I came to drive you home.”  
                “Oh, great, how exactly are you planning on doing that after drinking whiskey?” Kaiba gave Joey a look, quirking his eyebrow upwards, and it was enough to remind Joey that he really never did drive himself anywhere because he had the money to just pay someone else to drive for him. “I really don’t need your pity, Kaiba, I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself.”

                “Your black eye begs to differ.”

                Joey had to resist the immediate urge to reach across the bar and grab Kaiba by the collar, knowing that it wasn’t worth it to risk his job over a shitty rich kid trying to egg him into a fight.

                “You’re still a dick, you know that?” Joey growled under his breath, flopping the towel over his shoulder down onto the bar and focusing his attentions on doing something positive instead, cleaning the bar would mean that he and his coworkers could get out of here earlier anyway.

                “It’s been a while since I’ve heard that from you.” Kaiba lifted his whiskey to his lips again, tipping the rest of it back in one long drink. Joey stared at him for a long moment while he did, watching his Adams apple bob, a little impressed that he was even capable of getting past the burn of the alcohol like that. It was probably a show of pride, everything always seemed to be a competition with Kaiba. Good to know that hadn’t changed either. He sat down the glass, passing it across to Joey.

                “Another?”

                Kaiba nodded, watching him pour another drink for him. Joey passed it back to him, noting that his face was starting to flush, and his eyes were a little glazed already.

                “What time do you get off work?”

                “Last call is in about five minutes, so if you want to wait around it’s probably going to be about twenty or thirty minutes at least. I’m guessing you’re going to insist on this even if I say you shouldn’t aren’t you?”

                “So you can learn, can’t you?”

                “You keep talking to me like that, and I’ll call the police on you.” Joey sighed, shaking his head at Kaiba. They both knew it was an empty threat, though. Joey sighed, checking the clock. _Only a little bit more._

                “You look exhausted.”

                “Yeah, well, getting up in the morning for breakfast will do that to you when you’ve got work until 2AM.” Joey tried not to be phased by the question, though that wasn’t the first time he’d heard it. “I usually get more sleep—“

                “Don’t feed me a line of Bullshit, Wheeler. You know as well as I do that you had to call in because you were late for work this morning.” Joey stopped in his cleaning, staring down at the counter top. His fingers tightened around the rag he was using, this was a lecture that he really didn’t need to hear from Kaiba. “Do you always work that long of a shift?”

                “I don’t need to hear this from you.” Joey said it with a stern finality, and he shot Kaiba a pointed glare. Kaiba waved the topic away with the flip of his wrist, as if he wasn’t going to bother with arguing the subject. As if Joey was already a lost cause.

                It really kind of irritated him.

                “You know, I really thought that maybe you’d changed. You were awfully nice to me this morning, I guess I shouldn’t have gotten my hopes up. A spoiled rich _brat_ never changes.” Joey scoffed, turning his back on Kaiba and stalking back to the other side of the bar. He was still going to accept the ride home, but he didn’t know why he’d even entertained the thought that Kaiba was capable of changing.

                He was never going to understand what qualities Yugi saw in him when he kept pushing, and Joey was positive he never would.


	3. Broken and Hazy

Joey had accepted the ride that first night, as surely as he had said that he would. The thing is, he wasn’t sure if he should regret it now or not. That had been a week and a half ago, and sure enough, every night close to 2AM Kaiba would stop into his work and sit at the bar. Kaiba rarely ordered drinks, and for what it was worth, Tsukuda seemed to make pleasant conversation with him, seemingly unaware that she was speaking the CEO of one of the biggest corporations in the country. She also seemed convinced that he was a “ _boyfriend_ ~” of Joey’s in spite of his protests.

Though, in all fairness, Kaiba had seemed to lay off a bit. He’d stopped pressing Joey about every little detail of his life, and in fact, the conversations that they had were lighter. Less serious. They were pleasantries at times, though they had slowly delved into some of the more intense information from one another.

During one night, when he was particularly drunk, Kaiba had asked Joey if he knew why he acted the way that he did, but quickly shut himself up as soon as questions about the topic really started moving anywhere. During another, Joey had talked about how hard it was to support himself and his father now that his health was failing. Joey admitted that he’d somehow hoped by the end of high school that he’d be able to turn his life around, and maybe get into a good trade school at least, but that had just never quite come to fruition.

Joey, sitting in one of the crates our back during his break and reflecting on his life, was forced to admit that Kaiba had, indeed, changed. He wasn’t quite the same person, though there were certain Kaibaisms that had held fast. He wasn’t so brash, and was certainly more polite to the people around him. His demeanor had calmed considerably, though he still had a penchant for dramatics and always seemed to feel the compulsion to make things a competition. Plus, he still had a knack for pissing off Joey in the flip of a switch, he seemed to know just what buttons to push.

Joey sighed, feeling the ghost of an itch for a cigarette, even though he’d kicked the habit a long time ago after Yugi had pushed him to take better care of himself. Back when he was still fresh off his gang days, and was sporting an extremely violent temper and the strength to back it up.

“Wheeler!” Joey jumped as someone barked his name, half expecting it to be his boss telling him that there was a line at the bar, though when he turned to see who it was, his stomach sank. A broad shouldered thug-- the same guy who’d jumped him the other night—and he was flanked by others. Joey didn’t have time to count how many, his instincts screaming at him and kicking him into high gear as he darted back into the back door of his work. With any luck, they would opt out of sticking around and waiting for him, and he was almost sure that they wouldn’t cause a scene in his job.

At least he hoped that they wouldn’t.

His heart was pounding in his chest as he rammed full body into Tsukuda, eyes wide and hands shaking with the rush of adrenaline.

“Oh, Jesus, Joey, what’s wrong?” She asked, catching herself on the counter before she fell completely on her ass.

“I… I. I’m sorry, I need to. I’ve got to go.” Joey babbled, pushing past her and darting for the telephone, his hands shaking as he frantically punched in numbers and lifted the phone to his ear. It rang a couple of times, before an extremely tired Yugi’s voice sounded through the line.

“Hello...?”

“Yugi! Listen, I need help!”

“Joey?” Joey’s alarmed tone seemed to stir some of the life back into Yugi. “Woah, slow down ok? What’s the matter?”

“I’m in real trouble here, Yuge, I’ve got the loan sharks that my dad borrowed from sitting outside my work and waiting for me. I… I don’t know who else I can call.”

“Loan sharks? Joey, why didn’t you call the police?”

“I can’t Yugi, didn’t Kaiba tell you this? He’s practically got his head up your ass while you’re at work!”

“…Kaiba? Why would Kaiba tell me anything?” Yugi sighed into the phone, and Joey could tell that he was very tired, and very lost.

“Listen, I just need help. I need you to call Kaiba, and he should be able to explain everything, ok? Just tell him that I’m in trouble.”

“Joey--“

“Listen, I’m at work, and I gotta go, I promise that Kaiba will explain, ok?” Joey finished the conversation in a hushed tone, not waiting for further response from Yugi before hanging up the receiver and leaning in against the wall, his fingers clutching into a fist as he tried to calm down his panicked breathing enough that he wouldn’t show through to the customers.

Once he felt suitably calm again, he brushed his bangs back out of his face, turning and exiting back out into the front of the bar. He scanned through the faces at the bar, and swallowed hard as he watched the group who had charged at him outside as they settled into one of the tables across from the bar.

This was going to be a long night.

\---

Joey was closing tonight, so by the time last call rolled around, he was already feeling the nerves making his hands shake and sweat as he cleaned off the counter of the bar. The group had stuck around until the bar had last call, and then had ducked out. Joey could hope that Yugi would come through for him. He couldn’t count the number of times that his friend had come through for him at a critical moment, so he had to have faith that this time would be the same.

Still, he felt like he was going to throw up, remembering the ugly yellow bruise that was still showing around his eye and was currently caked over in concealer. His legs felt weak, and he didn’t know if he was going to be able to hold his own in a fight this time, especially knowing that there were at least four of them there, and they had likely called backup. It was hard for him to know how deep their connections ran.

The last of the people who were drinking had finally filtered out of the bar, and now it was just left to Joey, Tsukuda and his manager to clean and lock up. He’d been mentally debating whether or not he wanted to walk out with them or if would be better to just offer to lock up alone so he didn’t involve them in his problems. He especially didn’t want to see Tsukuda hurt, he thought of her as a friend, no matter how annoying she was at times.

“Alright, you two, let’s lock up and head home.” His manager clapped him on the back, and Joey realized that he’d been so keyed up that he’d run out of time to jump at the opportunity to lock up alone. Tsukuda stretched, smiling widely, waltzing up to Joey.

“You‘ve been quiet all night bud! Things going alright with you and your boy toy?” She asked, elbowing him. “You seemed pretty upset about something.”

“Boy toy?” Joey asked absently, so absorbed in his own thoughts that he’d forgotten almost everything outside of his plans on how to leave. Before he realized it, he was leaving the bar with the two of them. “Oh. He’s not my boy toy. I had to call him earlier because I thought I forgot something important.”

“Oh, a birthday?”

“No, not like that.” Joey admitted it dismissively. They stepped out onto the concrete in front of the store, and immediately he spotted the four men across the street, along with two more. He was clearly out-numbered. Joey stopped short, feeling his heart jolt and then rust as he began to panic, and he immediately regretted the decision to walk out with the two of them. “Hey, you two go on ahead, I want to have a smoke.”

“…You smoke?”

“Yeah, I’ve been trying to quit.” Joey laughed stiltedly, shrugging. “I don’t want to keep you guys out any later than you already are, I’ll be alright.”

“Alright, stay safe, ok?” Tsukuda glanced between Joey and their boss, but turned to walk with their manager. Joey watched them for a moment before his glance darted back towards the group across the road. They weren’t attacking him outright, seemingly waiting for the others to be out of earshot. He had a very limited time to think of what to do, though he was well aware that they had their eyes trained on him and his every move. His brain felt like it was stalling. He had no idea what to do, he realized, now that he was this far outnumbered. He’d known how to handle himself in small groups and when he had back-up, but he really didn’t know what to do when it came to this many people. He doubted that running was going to be an option, if he did manage to get away, they still knew where he lived. His best guess was to try and bottle-neck them and to try and to get the numbers to be more even. He didn’t know if they were armed, but this was his best option.

Joey made his move as fast as he could, dashing towards the alleyway next to the bar and listening, hearing the crunch of the rush of footsteps behind him on the snow as they charged after him. Apparently having preempted his move, however, they’d also perched two men around the back of the restaurant, who charged from the other direction.

Joey felt the adrenaline rush into his system, making time seem to dilate. He side stepped one of the men charging after him, but the alley was too thin to manage to miss both. Their bodies collided, sending him stumbling. He managed to catch his balance, but not soon enough to miss a rough right hook to his jaw. Joey felt his own teeth tear the flesh of his cheek, droplets of blood spattering onto the snow as he reeled, ears ringing. He went down, hard, this time.

Unwilling to go down without a fight, Joey kicked backward as hard as he could in retaliation and scrambled to regain his footing on the powdery snow.

He felt a tight grip on his hair as he was yanked upward by a guy who was probably twice his size. Joey yelped, but glared at the man who’d lifted him, spitting his saliva and blood into his eyes. It made him lose his grip, and Joey didn’t miss his opportunity, shoving the man as roughly as he could away from him, trying to open an escape from himself.

He tried to, but another had already gotten a tight grasp on his jacket, and it was easy for the other six that he hadn’t managed to delay to pile onto him. His arms were roughly shoved behind his back and held, another ramming into him and forcing him against the brick wall of his workplace. Joey’s voice let out a hoarse noise as he collided with the brick roughly, his hair being yanked again and jerking his neck backwards.

“You’re starting to be more fucking trouble than you’re worth, Wheeler.” His skin crawled as he heard the voice from whoever had him pinned against the wall, and he struggled harder against his grasp, trying to shake him off. His grip stayed firm, and in retaliation, he jerked him back by his hair, slamming his skull forward into the bricks. Joey heard a crunch, and could feel hot liquid running down over his lips. “Where’s our fucking money?!”

Joey grunted, still trying to shake him off. He felt his head being jerked backwards again, and he braced himself to have his face slammed back into solid brick. He was pretty dazed from the first blow, so it took him a long moment to recognize a shout and he was sent sprawling sideways, drug down with the person who was holding him. He felt his hands come loose from the man’s grip, and he immediately scrabbled at the pavement underhand to get to his feet. He wasn’t able to, his mind still in a haze, but he did manage to get a few feet backwards. He flipped himself over, staring at his attackers and realizing that the men he recognized were being pinned by others he didn’t recognize who were in suits.

Joey felt someone grip him by his armpits and hoisting him up, and he prepared to scream until he realized that he was being pulled to his feet.

“Get up, Wheeler, we’re getting you to a hospital.” He recognized the voice, but his slow mind didn’t immediately recognize it. He turned, looking toward Kaiba, who was urging him towards the other end of the alleyway. His legs felt shaky, but he managed to force himself to move forward.

“Wh… Kaiba?” His brain worked only haltingly as he was pulled along behind Kaiba, his vision was swimming again and he felt a little bit like he was going to lose balance again. His stomach roiled violently, and he wanted to vomit.

“Now’s not the time, Wheeler. The police are on the way as we speak.” Kaiba gave him a rather rough tug on the arm as he guided him, urging him to hurry up. As they rounded the corner deeper into the alleyway, Joey caught sight of Kaiba’s familiar car waiting at the end of the alley, as well as Yugi, looking more than a little tired.

As soon as he came into sight, Yugi gasped, clasping his hands over his mouth. Joey was vaguely aware that Yugi was speaking to him as he was heralded towards Kaiba’s car, but it all sounded like audio static. Garbled, and distant. God he felt like he could fall asleep right now. As soon as Kaiba let go of him to try and open the door for him, he lost his balance and almost collapsed.

Kaiba barely caught him under the arms, gesturing to the car door with a flick of his neck.

“Open the door, Moto.” Kaiba instructed.

“Is he okay? Oh my god.” Yugi was visibly shaking, seemingly stuck between the commands and fretting over his friend.

“He’s probably concussed. The sooner you get that door open, the sooner we can get him to a hospital and have him checked.” Kaiba spat it this time, and that seemed to motivate Yugi to move. He opened the door, and Kaiba hoisted him into the back seat. “You stay back here and make sure the idiot stays awake.”

“Okay.” Yugi said, his voice still shaking, though he slid in next to his friend. Kaiba closed the door once he was in, digging into his coat pocket for the keys.

Joey’s vision swayed, though he saw Yugi come into focus, and in spite of the worry on his friend’s face, Joey’s face split into a toothy grin.

“’s been a while Yuge!” His mind was hazy. Where was he? What had happened? And why was his head pounding like he’d gone ten rounds with a mac truck? He didn’t know, but he was here with Yugi, and that meant he was probably safe.

“Hi Joey. I sure wish it wasn’t seeing you again like this…” He mumbled, hesitating with what to do before he gently patted Joey’s cheek. Joey didn’t know what that meant.

“’m tired…” Joey sighed, trying to close his eyes only to get a rough shake of his shoulders for Yugi.

“Oh no you don’t, we just got to see each other again. You’re not doing this to me.” Yugi furrowed his brows, looking rather upset at him. Why was he so upset? Joey screwed up his face, trying to piece together what he’d done to make him so angry. Were they moving? Where were they anyway?

He blinked slowly, and then, like it was magic, things clicked back into place. His eyes widened and he tried to shoot up in spite of Yugi holding him down.

“Fuck! My dad! I have to see if he’s ok!” Joey struggled against Yugi’s grip. He could already feel the haziness creeping back into his mind—he needed to know his dad was alive and well before he got confused again.

“Joey—Hold still, damn it! You’re hurt!” Yugi fought with him to keep him prone, worried that him jerking around in this state would make him get hurt even worse.

“Wheeler, your dad is fine.” Joey snapped his head in the direction of the voice, only now realizing that he was in Kaiba’s car. Kaiba hadn’t even turned to look at them, actually driving himself for once. “I sent my personal guards to collect him. He’s going to be posted up in a hotel for the time being and he’s had the situation explained to him.”

Joey sighed, letting Yugi manhandle him back into laying down across his lap. So long as his dad was safe, things would be okay. He’d never forgive himself if his dad got hurt. He wasn’t sure why he was trusting Kaiba to keep him safe, but over the last few weeks he’d not given him a reason to question it. It’s not like he was in any position to be questioning it now, anyway.

“Hey, rich boy.”

“What, Wheeler?”

“Don’t crash on the way there. I want to rub it in your face that you like me enough to help me when I’m better, and I don’t want to die without checking that off my bucket list.” Kaiba glanced into the rearview mirror in time to catch Joey giving him a shit eating grin. It wasn’t but a moment before he lapsed back into his confused babbling, and Kaiba sighed, refocusing on the road and gripping the wheel so tightly his knuckles turned white.


	4. Enervation

It was a blur, the time that he was in the hospital—all talk of concussions and fractured noses. He was laying in the bed, staring at the off-white ceiling tiles where the curtains dangled, trying to ignore the persistent beeping of the machines all around him. Sleep was unfortunately rare, for a place where he was meant to be recovering from his injuries. He could recall a few visits from his friends and his dad, a call from Téa stuck out in his memory, though he couldn’t say that he remembered any of what had been said, if he was honest. The concussion had really fogged up his mind the first couple of days that he’d been in the hospital. Though now he was approaching day 4, laying here.

His mind was much less foggy today, and the chipper nurses that kept stopping in at all ungodly hours of the day seemed positive that he’d be getting out within the next day or two. He was holding onto that with all of his hope. He still hadn’t heard from the person he needed to talk to the most, though, and that was what was throwing him for a loop, and not for the reason it should have been.

No, he was sitting here, laid up in bed, worried about what Kaiba was going to want from him after all of this. It was too much, the way he seemed to jump through hoops to help Joey through this. The rides, hosting his dad in a hotel, paying his hospital tab, even. It was a little ridiculous, and Joey struggled to believe this was all for the sake of Yugi and Mokuba. He thought it was…

A waste of money. He flopped his head back onto his pillow again, sighing and realizing how stupid that sounded in hindsight. Had he really just said that getting treatment for a concussion and fractured nose was a waste of money? What had happened to him? God, growing into an adult had really pulled some of the vitality out of him hadn’t it? He suddenly felt the urge to cry, and as much as he would have liked to brush it off as a post-concussion mood swing, he had a feeling that this had been something that had been niggling at him for a lot longer than he’d been in the hospital.

It must have said something about his living situation that the most well rested he’d felt in months was in a hospital where he was experiencing constant interruptions to his sleep. He was glad that the attached bathroom didn’t have a mirror, if there was one he was almost afraid he’d look better (in spite of fractured nose and bruising) than he had in months.

This whole thing sucked, and he wanted it to be over with. He was struck with that feeling of not wanting to deal with any of this again.

There was a tap on the door, and one of his nurses stepped in, and he wasn’t allowed to think on it any more.

\---

The room had been tense since he’d walked in. Joey and Yugi had been chatting pleasantly, nothing even remotely to do with his injuries or his work or the money he owed anyone. And then Kaiba had showed up, and just sat down and made himself at home. He didn’t even bother saying anything, just immediately pulling out his laptop and sitting like there was nothing going on around him.

It had even seemed to surprise Yugi, who looked owlishly towards Kaiba and then back towards Joey with a shrug. Yugi seemed fine to just go back to talking—rambling at Joey about a new card release that had come into the Kame game shop. Joey couldn’t stop fidgeting, though, feeling like he could feel Kaiba’s icy stare on him even though he never managed to catch him looking.

Finally, he couldn’t take it anymore.

“Do you have something you want to say?” Joey snapped at Kaiba, shooting him a glare. Kaiba finally glanced up from his computer for only a moment before he went back to whatever he was doing.

“I’ll talk to you when you’re done.”

“Whatever you have to say, you can say it now.”

“Fine, Wheeler. I was going to speak to you about the police report.” Kaiba hissed, shooting him a glare. “I was assuming you wouldn’t want Yugi hanging around during it, considering your situation.”

“Wait… I thought you’d already explained all of this to Yugi?” Joey tipped his head. His head hurt too much to deal with trying to piece this together now.

“Explain… what, Joey?” Yugi cut in, staring at him hard for a moment. Kaiba hadn’t said anything about this to him? “All he told me is that you were having trouble with muggers near your work, lately.” Yugi turned to shoot a withering glare at Kaiba as well.

“It wasn’t mine to tell. You need to bring that up with Wheeler.” Kaiba huffed, not moving his gaze from his computer.

“Shit.” Joey sighed, laying back against his pillow, staring at the ceiling. This isn’t something he wanted to talk about right now. He’d made the mistake of assuming that it was over, just because he’d been hospitalized and his dad was safe. He should have known better, to be fair, but it had been so easy to push that to the back of his mind and neglect it. "Look, Yugi, I'm dealing with some stuff I'd rather not have you involved in, okay?" He sighed out finally.

"Are you having problems again? Like with Hirutani?" An immediate tone of concern crept into Yugi's voice.

"No, not him. It's with the loan sharks my dad ran with. They're wanting money back but figure it's easier to beat it out of me than my old man."

"So what's the news then, Kaiba?" Yugi was apparently more interested in hearing about it than Joey was. Likely because either way Joey was going to get fucked over. There was a roiling pit in his gut that was telling him he didn't want to hear this, didn't want to know, to ask Kaiba to keep it to himself and he'd handle his own problems within his family.

"The police arrested the goons who attacked you." Kaiba started, closing the lid of his computer and looking up at them. “They haven’t, however, managed to source who their leader is, so it may be a while before you are able to return to your home. They are looking to bring you in for a report as well, though I’ve managed to delay them while you recover and come to your full senses again.”

“Well I can’t just sit in the hospital.” Joey said through grit teeth, squeezing his eyes closed and lifting the hand that didn’t have an IV drip to rub at his forehead where a tension headache was forming. 

“I had actually hoped to discuss that with you as well.” Kaiba sighed, crossing his legs over one another and it was hauntingly similar to the way he looked at 16, looming over him and Yugi in hologram form with intent to kill. He tried to force that out of his mind again, knowing that if he started calling his motivation into question he was going to worry himself sick thinking about the fact that his dad was under his care. “I was going to offer to help put you up in a hotel room as well. Considering your friends now know of your situation, I figure it will save me time to ask now rather than argue with Yugi over it later.”

“Look, I don’t need you or anyone else’s pity. It’s a waste of money to have to put me up in a hotel when I’ve got a perfectly good apartment.” Fuck. There was that phrase again—a waste of money. He could tell that it was the wrong thing to stay as soon as it came out of his mouth by the way Yugi trained an angry look on him again. Fuck.

“Are you kidding me, Joey?” Oh fuck. Yugi’s tone was serious, and Joey felt his heart sink, knowing that he was in shit with his best friend. He was still getting used to this side of Yugi that had bloomed with his new confidence—confrontation. He was more than willing to try and argue sense into Joey on more than one occasion, and it meant that he was probably going to wind up accepting the offer one way or the other. “You had your face smashed against a wall! There’s no way it’s safe for you to be staying at your house right now! Especially with loan sharks after you and your dad!”

“Look, Yugi, you know I don’t like taking other people’s money. I can’t afford to hole myself up in a hotel and commute to work!” Joey nearly whined it, knowing that he was fighting a losing battle. Nine times out of ten, he would cave and give Yugi what he wanted in these situations, but right now he didn’t know how he could.

“And you’re endangering your health by not accepting it.” Yugi snipped right back at him.

“If it will save you from this argument.” Kaiba cut in, raising his voice to get both of their attentions. He paused until the both of them were focused on him. “The room where you stayed when you were at the last time you were roughed up is still open as well.”

“Oh hell no. I’m not staying with your ass.” Joey said it immediately, his kneejerk reaction. He couldn’t place a real reason why he wouldn’t want to stay with Kaiba, he just knew that nothing good would come of it if he did.

“Why not…?” Yugi ventured. “It’s not like it’s going to cost either of you any money if you do decide to stay there.”

“And if your concern is dealing with me Wheeler, I’m more than happy to avoid you. It’s not as if that would be a particularly hard thing to do considering the size of the mansion.” Kaiba added, nearly reading Joey to pieces in the process. Joey hesitated, blinking slowly and making an attempt to read Kaiba but making no real progress of it.

Why exactly was it that he didn’t want to stay there? It was temporary. Sure he’d have to deal with Kaiba, but what he’d seen was a marked improvement to the Kaiba he’d known in high school. Mokuba was a pretty nice kid, too, and he didn’t seem too interested in bothering Joey when he’d been there the last time. Plus it wasn’t like he’d even have to worry too much about keeping his own space clean, which was… well frankly that would be an improvement on his current living situation as well.

“You’re not going to lord this over my head?”

“I mean, I might a little bit, Wheeler. I’m only human.” Kaiba said it with a cold smirk, which Joey responded to in kind with a withering glare. “If you’re worried that I’m going to run around calling you a mooch, I don’t have any plans. After all, that would look worse on me than it would for you.”

Joey studied him for a moment longer, glancing toward Yugi as if looking for an answer, only to receive a shrug.

“He’s not the same person as when we met him first.” Yugi offered. Yugi probably would have known that better than anyone, after all they worked together. Then again, Yugi was arguably Kaiba’s favorite person still alive on the planet, so he wasn’t so sure that said anything.

“If I agree to this, and I haven’t yet.” Joey stated, giving Yugi just as much of glare as he did Kaiba. “I don’t want you feeding me or trying to get involved in my life. I want to be a tenant, not a roommate.”

“I won’t jump through hoops for you, Wheeler. I’m not going to interrupt my staff or the renovations teams for you though, either. You’ll deal with what I’m offering and nothing more.”

Joey glanced toward Yugi one more time. He was so tempted to just say no. Just tell Kaiba he didn’t need any of his fucking money and he didn’t want him in his life, even after all he’d already done for him. Life had only gotten more complicated since he showed up into it. He’d pestered him at work, he’d insisted on giving him rides home from his night job, he’d even saved him from the thugs who roughed him up and put him into the hospital. What was it all for? Wasn’t this the same Seto Kaiba who hated his guts and called him a dog on several occasions? The same Kaiba who’d tried to kill him and Yugi? The same Kaiba who’d refused him medical attention when he’d almost died? What did he stand to gain from offering this now? Even if he was only extending an olive branch, Joey wasn’t so sure he wanted to accept it from him. What right did Kaiba have to try to make peace now? He’d never even said sorry for everything he put him through…

And just like that, it clicked.

Was this Kaiba’s way of trying to apologize? It very well might have been, Kaiba’s solutions to problems had always seemed to involve either trying to duel the other party or to throw money at them. Was he doing that now? Throwing money at Joey to try and get him to forgive him? God, the thought that he was pissed him off more, it would have been so much easier to just swallow his pride and apologize. Was the word “sorry” even in his vocabulary?

Joey’s fists had balled in the sheets of his hospital bed, and he stared blankly down at them. What choice did he really have? Maybe he should have just accepted the offer of being put up in a hotel room. At least there he would have been able to mostly avoid the Kaiba brothers and he could pretend the thought of whether or not he actually wanted to forgive them wasn’t real. He could pretend that he wasn’t seriously considering it, either.

Instead, he let out a long sigh.

“Fine, Kaiba.”

\---

Joey rolled his shoulders, his body sore from carrying his necessary belongings into the Kaiba manor after having insisted that he didn’t need help from the staff. He was, surprisingly, optimistic about how this would go. He’d been mostly left to his own devices after just asking once to be left alone by the wait staff, and now he had his stuff set up, he was betting he wouldn’t have to see hide nor tail of—

As if on cue, the thought was cut off by the sound of someone knocking on his bedroom door. He sighed inwardly. Okay well he couldn’t say he hadn’t at least tried to be positive.

“Yes?” he called over his shoulder as he worked on hanging his clothes up to put into the closet. The door opened softly, and Kaiba—of course it was Kaiba—stepped in.

“I thought of something you should know. Since you asked that I not make special accommodations for you, the renovation team has begun work on the master bath.” Kaiba didn’t even bother with a hello. He was at least amicable at the very least.

“Kaiba, just say what you mean. I’m not going to deal with you talking in circles while I’m staying here.” Joey deadpanned, not pausing in his rhythm of clothes, hanger, and closet.

“What I’m saying, Wheeler, is that people may stop into your room to use the attached bathroom. If you have any issues with that you need to let me know now if I need to tell the house staff and Mokuba to use the other bathrooms.” Joey wondered for a moment about just how many bathrooms there were in this big ass house, scrunching up his face in thought.

“I don’t care if they want to use the bathroom. I’m probably not going to be around much during the day anyway, so it’s not going to matter to me. ‘S not like I have anything they’d want to steal anyway.” Joey shrugged.

“I don’t appreciate the insinuation that the house staff are thieves.” Kaiba huffed, rolling his eyes, though Joey wasn’t paying any real attention to him to notice it. “Just make sure you don’t scare yourself if someone comes out of your bathroom when you’re getting home from your jobs. If you hit any of the staff I will put you back out on the street faster than you can say ‘sorry’.”

“I’m not that skittish.” Joey assured, tucking away the last of his clothing and sliding the door closed. “Is that all you need?”

“No. I wanted to inform you that Mokuba has invited you to dinner.” Kaiba quirked an eyebrow, the only tell that the sentiment impacted him in the slightest and it was unreadable. Typical, Joey thought.

“I thought I said I didn’t need you to feed me.” Joey glared daggers at him.

“I never said you had to accept. Just that he invited you.” Kaiba smirked, apparently well aware that he’d already won this argument.

“Let me guess. If I say ‘no’ he’s going to be heartbroken?”

“Naturally.”

“You’re an asshole.”

“You expected anything else, Wheeler?”

Joey was very quickly realizing that this was going to be a very, very long stay here if every day was going to be like this.


	5. Guilt Trip

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The support and comments on this fic have been wonderfully motivating! Thank you all so much, it really meants the world, especially knowing that I work through this pretty slowly. Please enjoy chapter 5 and hopefully I'll be able to get more to you shortly. Again, thank you all so much for the outpouring of support!

                Joey fidgeted with the cuff of his jacket sleeve as he sat, waiting, in the police department to be taken aside to file his version of the report. They were supposed to be advising him on his next best options and giving him an update as to the situation with his father and the gang who he owed money. Thing was, police had always made him nervous. Maybe that was something left over from his days running with Hirutani when he would be running from flashing lights, grinning wickedly and trying to get the rush of adrenaline from feeing above the law.

                He’d been here before, he’d probably be taken aside by an officer or two and asked to give a verbal report of what happened, and then he’d have to sit for a while so that they could file the report before they told him what they planned to do. It was not only boring, but it had been ingrained in him as a teen to be stressed right the hell out by it.

                “Wheeler?” Joey got to his feet, crossing to the officer who called for him, eyeing him while the other lead him back to where they were going to be taking his vocal report.

                This was going to be a long day.

\---

                Two weeks. Kaiba sighed at his desk, tapping his pen against the wood of his desk in his study. Joey Wheeler had been living in his house for two weeks. He wasn’t sure why he’d penciled it into his schedule—he supposed he’d assumed it would have some profound, annoying change in his life that would require him slotting time out for him. Admittedly, many of the things that _had_ required his time had been the ones he’d opted into doing himself. Sure, this had started as an apology, but at some point, this had turned into Kaiba being genuinely invested in Wheeler’s wellbeing, and that was a fact which irked him.

                Kaiba had grown—at least enough to take a nice, long, self-reflective look at himself enough to realize that he had problems that were out of his control, and that sometimes it was alright to delegate those problems to others. He’d started speaking with a psychologist, and despite Kaiba’s firm push against letting him into the part of his childhood that kept him awake at night, he had given him advice on some of his more recent life events—though the descriptions of them had remained loose and foggy. People tended to frown on you claiming that there was a long-dead pharaoh that had left a gaping hole in your life.

                Suffice to say, it had helped to correct his perspective some—make him realize that he was taking things for granted. He’d been spending more time with Mokuba and Yugi both, and they had proven to be a good influence on him learning to be a better person. Learning to have empathy for others and to grow. Sure, he was still cold, and he was still an asshole, he wouldn’t fight that image. It benefited him in his line of work to be that way.

                Still. He trusted them. If they saw something good in Joey Wheeler, then there must have been something that he hadn’t seen. Sure, he’d never really intended to befriend him—he would have been content to never see him again in his life had the wiles of the universe not placed Joey at his door looking pathetic and bleeding.

                He’d let him in—he’d been trying to follow his psychiatrist’s advice of doing something that he knew was good for someone else—an exercise in empathy, is what he’d called it. He’d let him in and heard him out, and things were surprisingly calm between the two of them, considering who they were and what their history was. It had certainly been enough to give Kaiba another one of those rather startling moments of self-reflection on how he’d treated Joey in all the times that he’d crossed paths with him. The realization that he’d been cruel for the most part, despite what he would have called something of a budding friendship at the time. In hindsight, the fact that they tolerated each other even slightly and that was enough for Kaiba to call them friends was telling.

                It had been enough to prompt him to do all of this – well some of it anyway. As an apology and trying to make things right. He wasn’t sure why he felt the need to prove to Joey Wheeler that he wasn’t a monster. Maybe it was because he had, at one point, considered them something akin to friends even though they merely tolerated one another. It was hard knowing. Kaiba often found himself forced to question his own motives, and he didn’t always find an answer. This was one of those cases. He wasn’t sure what about Joey’s story had resonated with him, or what exactly he hoped would come of this, but it didn’t feel bad to help him. And for the most part Joey had made good on staying out of the way even though he was joining them for dinner more often than he wasn’t. Mokuba seemed to appreciate the company anyway.

                Kaiba realized that he’d been caught in his own thoughts again—not finishing what he’d meant to do in the first place. He hummed, scratching onto his day planner that this was the day that Wheeler was turning in his report to the police station. He read through the rest of the notes for the day:

                _Mokuba has press meeting with CEO of US KC Branch_

_Senior staff scheduled off for team building per HR div request – Corporate Div_

_Reminder from Dr. Clements – do one good deed a day for “Exercise in Empathy”_ _(he’d drawn a frowning blue eyes next to this item on the list)_

_Staff meeting cancelled._

_Put in Service order for Jet Maintenance and Cleaning + Inspection._

_Renovations team working in West wing - master bath and bedroom_

He sighed to himself, tapping his pen impatiently against the surface of the desk again. He’d spent his day doing bits and pieces of work from home, but with his senior staff off today it meant that it was horrifyingly slow today, and that meant sitting and waiting, and that drove him nuts. He’d never broken the bad habit of being a work-a-holic, needing to always feel like he was doing something for his company, though he knew it was bad for his health.

                He sighed, wondering if, perhaps, he should do something special for dinner tonight as a reward for Mokuba. He’d been working especially hard to make Kaiba’s life easier and to try and take more responsibilities on with Kaiba corp. It wasn’t a bad idea, and it seemed like he had a clear space in his schedule to speak to the chefs. Did that count as his Exercise in Empathy? He realized that his psychologist had made a point to specify that it should be people that he didn’t already have an existing relationship with, but this could count right?

                _Thunk._ Kaiba sighed again as he dropped his pen against the surface of his desk, a little irritated at that thought. He knew damn well that that didn’t count as doing a good deed. Sure, he’d done a good deed in inviting Wheeler to stay with them, but Mokuba had made a point of telling him that he could _only count it once_. Which was absolute bullshit, in his opinion, but that meant finding something else to do which was good for someone who wasn’t named “Kaiba” or “Wheeler”.

                Well, considering he had the free time, he could do the one thing that he’d discovered that he did enjoy doing which was considered a good deed. He had found that he did enjoy going to the local orphanages and impoverished areas surrounding Domino and bringing the children pre-built decks and teaching them how to play duel monsters. He realized that he was a little intimidating – both in stature and in name association for the kids who were old enough to realize who he was – but once they started to play that seemed to fly out the window. Normally he couldn’t stand the thought of having someone not take him so seriously, but when it was a little kid who seemed to be having the time of their lives with their first experience with duel monsters, he could learn to live with it.

                 It really did remind him of when he and Mokuba were younger—it reminded him a lot of how much of a positive force that duel monsters were in his life. Sure, it was a fun game to play, but he supposed in large part what made him enjoy the game in the first place was the reminder that his little brother loved and supported him unconditionally. He knew that he couldn’t provide that for those kids, necessarily, but if he could share even any small part of the joy that it had brought him then it was worth it.

                And yes, contrary to popular belief, he did feel joy. He just masked it very well. So well that even his brother seemed to question it sometimes. But that was something to bring up in therapy, so he swept the thought under the rug.

                He hummed, picking up his pen again and reaching for his desk phone with his other hand, preparing to make a couple of calls – one for dinner, and another to see if anywhere could pencil him in for an appointment to teach that afternoon.

\---

                Joey could feel the ache in his head as he felt his shoulders and neck tense up during his report—sure it shouldn’t have been so nerve fraying being on this end of the questioning, but that didn’t seem to matter to his subconscious – he had already associated this police station with a lot of negative memories and they were all flooding back to him. He _needed_ a drink, and as much as he felt ashamed of that, he just wanted to unwind and stop feeling so…. Claustrophobic. He wanted to stop feeling like he was being crushed.

                The policeman who had been kind enough to offer him a ride back to the Kaiba manor (or rather insisted, reminding him that he was, indeed, being sheltered here under police urging because he was at risk of being mugged—or worse, killed – by the loan sharks who were trying to strongarm money out of him or his father) dropped him off outside of the gates, staying long enough to see that he had scanned himself inside. A frown had set itself on Joey’s features, his mind set on one thing and one thing alone as he made a bee-line for his room to get his wallet and get the fuck out of dodge.

                As if the universe just _knew_ , no sooner had he closed the door to his room than someone was knocking for him. He didn’t have the patience for this today.

                “What?!” He realized his tone was sharp, but he really couldn’t force himself to care when he felt like his body was trying to implode in on itself. He dug in his closet, tearing clothing off the hangers as he searched jacket and coat pockets for his wallet. The door opened, though he didn’t bother to even look up to see who had come in.

                “Wheeler. I was coming to invite you to dinner tonight, the chef has made something special for Moku—”

                “Not a chance, Kaiba.” Joey cut him off, his patience worn thin, and he emerged from the closet just in time to see the tail end of the way that Kaiba’s expression screwed up at him. It was the most emotion he could think that he’d seen on his face in the entire time he’d been staying there. Joey still didn’t understand what emotion he was trying to show or if he even really cared, for that matter. He couldn’t bring himself to care about much right now except for the near unbearable itch for a cigarette or a couple of shots of hard liquor to soothe his nerves. Even then, it wasn’t so much that he cared about them, but he needed to cope somehow, and he was too jittery and keyed up to give a shit that they were unhealthy coping mechanisms.

                “Oh.” Kaiba’s brain seemed to stall, and if he wasn’t trying to rush right back out the door Joey probably would have been proud of himself for leaving the other speechless for once in his life. “What are you doing?” Kaiba’s tone and cold glare must have meant he was irked.

                “I’m going out for a drink. Don’t wait up for me.” Joey’s word dripped contempt, frankly he was too tired to put up with niceties and the last person in the world he wanted to see right now was Kaiba.

                “You have a ride to get back, then?”

                “Don’t need one – I’m going to walk.” Joey moved to push past Kaiba and head for the exit but was met with a wall of flesh as the taller man stepped to block him.

                “Are you an idiot? You just got mugged less than a month ago and you’re going to go out and trounce around in the streets?”

                “Look, Kaiba, I’m too tired and stressed to put up with you right now. Move.” It wasn’t a request, it was a demand. Joey stared him down, and his mood must have shown on his face because Kaiba stepped aside– apparently not looking for a fight. If Joey didn’t know better, he would have said that Kaiba looked a little bewildered.

                “Fine, Wheeler. I’m not going to jump through hoops to keep you from doing something stupid.” Kaiba spat it, and Joey was struck by how reminiscent the tone was to being called a worthless dog. Nothing really had changed, then, between them. Kaiba still looked at him and saw an idiot, and he was probably right. Oh well. Joey resisted the strong urge to…. To choke him, spit in his face, deck him, anything to try and force an ounce of respect for him into Kaiba. Instead, he just lingered on a withering look for a moment longer before he stepped through the door to the spare room and slamming it behind him, leaving Kaiba asking himself questions his wake.

\---

                Dinner had been nice. Not quite the same, without Wheeler, Kaiba would be remiss to deny that, but nice all the same. Mokuba and he had been able to talk, Kaiba had been able to express his pleasure and pride in his brother and his progress, and for the first time in a long time, Kaiba felt like he’d properly demonstrated to his brother how well he was doing and how much that meant to Kaiba.

                Unfortunately, he hadn’t been able to go and volunteer his time, his cancelled meeting being un-cancelled because of a fundamental miscommunication between departments within Kaiba Corp, but that was unavoidable from time to time. He tried to be understanding about it and move on – again at the advice of his psychiatrist. What he hadn’t been able to move past was Joey’s sour mood that afternoon, however.

                Now that Kaiba was left alone with his thoughts he was almost starting to feel guilty that he hadn’t done more to try and stop him from going alone, though he wasn’t sure why. Was this part of this Empathy bullshit? Because if it was, he wanted no part in it. It was not a good feeling and in a particularly Kaiba fashion he had an aversion to negative emotions that didn’t benefit him.

                Kaiba had been trying to focus for the better part of an hour on the work that he’d been spending most of his time on. It was code – bug testing and repair specifically – for his new hologram system and the animations that it would play, something that it was normally hard for him to put down because it was one of the most satisfying parts of the process. And yet, he couldn’t focus on it all because of Wheeler—and the worst part was that he just couldn’t figure out why. It wasn’t like he hadn’t tried to stop him from going out and doing something stupid while he was a target for a gang, Wheeler just hadn’t listened to him.

                And then Kaiba had insulted him, and _there_ was that gross feeling pit in his stomach that was telling him that he had been making it worse. Guilt—a feeling that he’d thought he’d had beaten out of him ages ago by his stepfather—he recognized finally. Why in the world was he feeling guilty for Wheeler he couldn’t fathom, but he supposed empathy worked in mysterious ways. After all, he had been trying to impress Wheeler. Scratch that – Kaiba didn’t try to _impress_ anyone – but he had been trying to prove his humanity to him. Trying to prove that he was capable of being compassionate and redemption worthy.

                In his mind it made perfect sense. He was trying to ask forgiveness from Wheeler so that he could gradually work himself up to others, he’d decided. He wanted to be able to treat Wheeler like a human so that he could eventually move on to others – people like Mokuba and his employees, and eventually maybe even himself.

                _Unlikely_. The thought came unbidden to his head, and it was enough to snap Kaiba back out of his thoughts long enough to take a glance at the clock and check the time. It was already quarter past one AM, and it was well past the point that he should have been in bed to try and get a reasonable amount of sleep before he had to be up at five AM for work in the morning. He weighed his options, and eventually decided with a sigh of resignation that it would be more productive to get some sleep and take a step back from the code he was working on for the time being.

He ran through his end of day office checklist that he’d filed away into his memory so long ago that it was automatic at this point—save his work, check his email one last time, triple check his schedule, double check his bookings for flights if he had any, log off and shut down his computer, tidy the papers on his desk and put everything in its proper place before _finally_ he was able to get up and make his way towards his bedroom by one-thirty. Then he had another checklist that he’d automated so long ago that it required next to no thought anymore – he’d check on Mokuba, wash his face, brush his teeth, strip out of the days clothes and put them in the hamper, change into his pajamas, tidy any lingering clutter in his bedroom, and finally turn off the lights and tuck himself into bed at almost two in the morning.

                And that’s how it went, just like any other night. Except, tonight he lay awake for a few minutes more, plagued with the thought that something may happen to Joey—that he should have tried to do more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just as a note about the rating -- the rating will likely go up from M to E from here forward, so keep that in mind if you're reading and aren't comfortable with that!


	6. Voyeur

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I bumped up the rating because of this chapter just to be safe. Hope you guys enjoy!

                Kaiba stirred, his mind slowly chugging to life as he immediately registered his need to use the restroom. Right. For all his automation of his end of day processes, he had forgotten something because he wasn’t sleeping in his master bedroom for the time being – which meant he’d entirely forgotten his pre-slumber bathroom break. Damnable renovations.

                He dragged himself up into a sitting position, blinking slowly as his mind warmed up and focused on the clock – a quarter till three. He’d barely been asleep an hour, but he’d had the bad habit of not getting enough sleep for so long that almost as soon as his head hit the pillow his body immediately pushed him into rem sleep. He managed to get himself up to his feet heading for the nearest bathroom in the manor—the one in the guest bedroom that Joey was staying in. Of course, his sleep addled mind didn’t register any of that, just that he needed to pee and that he couldn’t use the bathroom he usually did.

                It felt a little like he was still asleep as he wobbled down the hall, almost drifting off standing up as his brain and his bladder warred with each other over interrupted sleep and the human need to take a piss from time to time.

                It wasn’t until he was in the room that he registered that the spare room was still empty—Joey wasn’t home yet. That was enough to jolt his brain into full consciousness as his stomach knotted tightly again. He frowned at himself, forcing the feeling down as he headed toward the attached restroom—the sooner he got back to bed the better, it afforded him less time to think about it.

                It really didn’t take long at all, Kaiba relieved himself and was at the sink, washing his hands in a couple of moments. As he worked the suds between his long fingers, he noted the sound of the bedroom door opening and closing – no doubt Joey returning from the bar if the racket he made stumbling around the room was anything to go by. It sounded like he must have been absolutely wasted.

                Kaiba felt a twinge of irritation at Wheeler for making the decision to get sloppily drunk, though Kaiba had done so himself not so long ago. He’s woken up hating himself for more than the usual reasons—not only was he hung over, but he’d nearly let his guard down too much. He wasn’t sure what he’d been thinking, even skirting around the topic of the orphanage and Gozaburo Kaiba in the presence of Wheeler. He couldn’t afford to let that part of his façade crack, it would be detrimental to Kaiba corp, and more than likely to the mental health of he and Mokuba as well. It was hypocritical of him to be angry at Wheeler for falling to the same vices that he had in the past, but that didn’t stop the irritation he was feeling. Trying not to let the feeling eat at him, he dried his hands on the towel that hung from the rung on the wall.

                There was a noise – a vocalization-- that Kaiba paid no real mind to initially, writing it off as the drunken ramblings of someone who’d done a shot or two too many. It wasn’t until Kaiba was reaching for the door handle to leave and the noise happened a second time that his sleep addled mind clicked into place what he was hearing.

                A mix of emotions ran through him at the realization that what he was hearing was rather… _erotic_ sounding moaning, the first and most prominent being absolute blind rage. God, he wanted to fucking strangle Wheeler! How dare he bring his lay into the Kaiba manor—he probably snuck them past security for fucks sake! Not to mention that Kaiba’s kid brother was in the house!

                Well, actually, Mokuba was well past the age where they taught sex ed in schools, but the point stood! Kaiba didn’t even bring his own lays here! Not that he had any, but he wouldn’t have if he did!

                He was half a second away from tearing the door open and knocking a few of Joey’s teeth down his throat before he hesitated, his hand still resting on the knob as a thought ran through his mind.

                _You still haven’t done your good deed for the day._ Kaiba’s fingers twitched and he drew them back from the doorknob, suddenly conflicted. Did this count for that? Sure, he would love to get the fuck out of here and save himself the displeasure of having to hide in the restroom while Wheeler got laid, but that would probably only piss Joey off at him more, and it wasn’t like Kaiba wanted to see anyone’s nude body. He didn’t want to see his own nude body most of the time, and he wasn’t too keen on seeing a stranger—or worse, having Wheeler’s dick forever seared in his mind.

                With that in mind, even if it _didn’t_ count towards him being selfless it would be beneficial for him to avoid leaving this room and to just grin and bear it. Besides, Wheeler probably had the stamina of a horny teenager. He’d live.

                _The sound of someone hitting the wall and another moan._ Ok maybe not. Maybe this was worse than seeing Wheeler naked.  However, his mind’s eye was quick to provide him with the image of having to see Wheeler wearing nothing more than a deer-in-the-headlights look, and he immediately realized that no, staying right here in this room was infinitely better than seeing that. He was a little angry that his mind was even capable of conjuring an image of what Joey could _hypothetically_ look like naked.

                If it wouldn’t have totally voided the fact that he was meant to be doing this for both his and Wheeler’s benefit, he would have said that this would have been great blackmail material. _A gasp and a low chuckle_. Well at least he could laugh at Wheeler’s expense?

                Kaiba realized that he’d been standing, lost in thought and staring at his own reflection. He gritted his teeth, rubbing his face to try and be rid of the embarrassed flush which had settled across them. _Embarrassment is not a feeling that Seto Kaiba feels,_ he reminded himself _._ He turned around so that he wouldn’t have to see himself anymore, growing more agitated, although he wasn’t sure if it was towards himself or Joey.

                _Something mumbled between lovers_ … Or was it? Kaiba had heard enough to know that he was only hearing one person vocalize, and he could make a pretty good guess as to who it was considering the amount of time recently that he’d heard Wheeler’s voice over dinner and in his house. He hated to admit it, but he would have recognized that voice anywhere-- apparently in any situation, too. So, he was either alone or had managed to find one of the quietest partners imaginable.

                Maybe he was using a blow-up doll. Kaiba had to immediately clasp a hand over his mouth to keep himself from laughing out loud and alerting them to his presence. Of the half dozen thoughts he’d had of Joey naked this morning, that was probably the only one he’d found acceptable. _A guttural, slightly more urgent sounding groan._

Kaiba did have to admit to himself that he’d never particularly thought of Joey as being… a sexual person. He supposed the most people were, even if he, himself, wasn’t. In fact, he’d been called a prude to his face before, so he knew all too well that his mind rarely ventured in that direction. There was no real way that he could have been able to tell from the outside—he could only say for sure that he, himself hadn’t really been around any partners. Well, none that he could recall anyway. It was hard to be entirely sure of what he’d done on the rare occasions where he’d reached his breaking point and gotten blackout drunk, but it didn’t seem in his character to have a fling, so he could be at least 98% sure that he didn’t. Then again, Kaiba wasn’t normal, he was starting to realize, so it was entirely possible that normal, sex-motivated people did have partners around regularly. Somehow, he figured asking Yugi or Joey that question would get him laughed at.

                Though the more he thought about it (which he really _shouldn’t_ be thinking about it, he reiterated), the more he could recall Joey and his coworker at the bar making jokes in passing about him picking up sober people from his work. Kaiba could at the very least guess from that that he probably did have a sex life, so he wasn’t sure why he expected him to just stop that because he was living with Kaiba. Hell, Joey probably figured that Kaiba had the time for a sex life, so maybe he didn’t have a right to be angry with Wheeler for not telling him ahead of time that he planned on bringing home strangers. That was, assuming he had even brought someone home. _A swear under his breath, then an airy gasp._

How realistic was porn, anyway? Sure, Kaiba didn’t seek it out, but that was his only real connection to anything of the sort that he could think of. He was lacking the personal experience to compare it to anything, but they had to blow it out of proportion, right? They were putting on a show for the camera.

                Was Joey that dramatic with his partners? _Heavy breathing and something that he can’t make out but sounds wrecked._

                Kaiba could imagine it, Joey’s head tossed back, murmuring something filthy but hilariously unsexy. The sort of thing that you heard in the cheesy ones—along the lines of _oh your cock is so huge_ or _I’m going to cum on those titties._ Or maybe one of the awful ones about plumbers or pizza guys who get paid in alternative means. _Low, consistent moans, like he’s suddenly trying to force himself to keep his voice down._

                Or a landscaper. Shirtless with his jeans riding low on his hip and covered in sweat, barely waiting until he’s inside because he’s too excited at the prospect of sex to resist trying to touch himself. Licking his lips and asking if they’re ready in a husky tone. Stripping out of his clothes and smiling like a dumbass, beautiful and stupid. Asking them to touch themselves, sucking hickies onto their necks and leaving trails of bite marks until they’re ready and waiting, almost begging for him. He’d make a show of finally getting his cock inside someone, _moaning loudly and purring._ Fucking himself up into a frenzy, rough but teasing, until he and his partner were ready to burst, and then letting it all out with _an aborted shout and a low, shaky moan_ as he fucks himself through his climax until he’s left _panting and swearing_.

                Fuck, **no.** That was a piss poor train of thought and _Seto Kaiba had absolutely, one-hundred percent not just gotten hard in his pajama pants from imagining Joey Wheeler in a cheesy porn scenario while listening to him either jack off or fuck someone._ Kaiba outright refused that was a possibility. Kaiba could probably count the number of times he’d had any palpable attraction to anyone on one hand, and he refused to count Joey among those ranks. He was tired and angry at himself and Joey, and he didn’t want to try to even parse this now. He just wanted to go back to bed and, fingers crossed, forget any of this had happened by morning.

                He waited until he heard Joey’s breathing calm back down, and then for a while longer until he heard him faintly snoring before even attempting to make his exit. He opened the door to the bathroom as quietly as he could, peering into the room to assure that Joey’s sleeping form was indeed in his bed before he slipped out of the room as quietly as he could manage.

                Considering he wasn’t even the one who got laid, it sure felt like he was taking the walk of shame.

\---

                Kaiba had barely slept that night at all, especially not after the incident in the guest bathroom. He’d spent the better part of another hour tossing and turning and then by the time that he did fall asleep he’d been plagued with dreams along the same lines as the thoughts he’d been having trapped in that bathroom. He was pretty sure that the sound of Joey cumming was going to haunt his nightmares for the rest of his life. Was trying to learn empathy worth this much fucking suffering?

                He managed to drag himself out of bed, ten minutes late, but he was up. He could already tell that this was going to be a long day, and he was faced with a new problem now – he knew that Joey was probably going to be working another early shift this morning, which meant that Kaiba was going to have to see him this morning. He didn’t know how he was going to look him in the eyes. Kaiba was not a shy person, but even he didn’t think he had the iron fortitude to not give himself away. He could only hope that Joey was really that oblivious.

                He decided to focus on making his coffee—the process of preparing his French press was enough to take his mind off it for the moment. He twisted the filters into place with a practiced motion as he tried to focus his attention on the work he was going to be doing today and not the fact that he’d lost sleep. He took the kettle off the stove, pouring the hot water in over the coffee grains and replacing the lid, glancing at his watch so that he could keep track of how long he had been waiting for the coffee to brew and he could percolate it.

                It seemed that ignoring the issue wasn’t going to be possible, he realized, as Joey picked that moment to emerge into the kitchen, looking rough and reminding Kaiba a little of how he’d looked in his own mirror. He didn’t even acknowledge Kaiba, opting for what was already brewed in the coffee pot rather than the French press. Kaiba did his best to conceal any feelings that tried to rush to the surface, and thankfully he was well used to doing it, so he was confident his poker face held. Still, he watched the other carefully out of the corner of his eye as he milled around.

                Joey seemed content to not speak to him, instead sitting at the table behind Kaiba judging by the scrape of the chair legs against the linoleum. That suited Kaiba just fine as he glanced at the time to see how much longer his coffee needed to brew. Unfortunately for him, Wheeler was as unpredictable as he always seemed to be.

                “I’m sorry for last night.” Joey started, tersely. Kaiba couldn’t recognize what emotion it was in his voice but kept in mind that he probably wasn’t aware Kaiba had heard any of what had happened the prior night after he’d come home from the bar. Actually, it was entirely possible that Kaiba was the only one of the two of them who remembered anything about it, Joey had sounded like he was stumbling around like a drunk for the entire time Kaiba had elected to stay in the bathroom.

                “Sorry for… what, exactly?” Kaiba said, hoping that his voice held and didn’t betray him – another thing that he was blessedly practiced at. There was a pregnant pause before Joey spoke again.

                “I’m sorry because I was kind of a dickhead to you yesterday when I got home.”

                “So?” Kaiba shrugged, a tight little movement that felt unnatural to him.

                “So…? You didn’t deserve it.” Joey said, and then under his breath added “for once.”, probably not intending for Kaiba to hear it. He did, but like most insults tossed his way he brushed it off, not all too bothered by it.

                “It doesn’t matter, Wheeler.” Kaiba huffed, shifting in place as he stopped looking at his watch and slowly pressed the filter through his coffee to percolate it. “So, you’re staying here. It doesn’t mean anything has changed between us, I don’t expect you to like me just as much as you don’t expect me to like you. Like I said, this is a favor to Yugi.” Kaiba finally hazarded a glance in Wheeler’s direction, making a note of the skeptical look on his face. He wasn’t sure what he expected from Joey, exactly, if he was honest. He could seek forgiveness until the end of time and he really couldn’t imagine that he would ever receive it from Wheeler, nor that he’d really deserve it either.

                Kaiba didn’t deserve forgiveness from a lot of people. He was well aware of that, which is why he rarely ever sought it out in the first place. As he’d realized before, it was hard for even him to understand his own motives sometimes, so he listened to what his instincts told him to do. First had been seeking forgiveness from Mokuba, then from Yugi, and he had yet to feel like he’d earned it from either of them even though they had willingly given it. Perhaps he was doing it because, in a sense, some part of his subconscious knew that Joey would make it a challenge for him to earn clemency.

                The thought, in and of itself, disappointed Kaiba. Maybe he hadn’t made any progress at all if he was still looking for a challenge even in forgiveness.

                “Kaiba, you’re full of shit, but I’m glad you’re not mad.” Joey sounded unsure, still looking at Kaiba like he expected him to grow another head. Wheeler gave him that look a lot. Kaiba clicked his tongue, shaking his head and returning to his coffee, pouring it out into a mug and making the choice to take it full strength.

                “Whatever, Wheeler.” Kaiba huffed, taking the seat across from Joey and immediately reaching for his phone to try and preoccupy himself so he didn’t have to make eye contact. He wasn’t so lucky, his eyes drawn take another glance at Joey, he noticed something he’d missed the first time.

                Wheeler had a hickey on his neck, looking a violent purple against his flesh. There was another quick flash of rage through Kaiba, wanting to hit the other again. He wasn’t sure why, this time, it could be any number of reasons. Instead of acting on the urge, he took a drink of his coffee, lifting his phone into his line of view and pulling up the news for the day, though he couldn’t focus on the text.

                “Looks like you had fun.” It was snide without him really meaning to be. He glanced up again from under his bangs, watching Joey as realization flashed across his face and his hand immediately darted to cover the bruise. In a twisted way, it was highly satisfying to see him get so flustered, and Kaiba could feel the smug look on his face as Joey sputtered words that didn’t mean anything.

                “I uh… Little drunk last night, I didn’t—at least I don’t think we—”

                “I don’t want to hear it, Wheeler.” Kaiba said, lifting his free hand in a signal to stop speaking. He’d already heard plenty, and he wasn’t particularly keen on hearing more. “Just… don’t bring them here.” Kaiba spoke, pausing for a moment, and then seeming to decide to add: “Please.”

                Joey couldn’t form coherent thought for another long moment, and Kaiba was entirely fine pretending to read on his phone so he didn’t have to linger on the way Wheeler flushed up to his ears and his mind wouldn’t conjure any images that he didn’t need to have in his head. He didn’t _want_ to have in his head, he corrected mentally.

                “Right. I’m sorry.” Joey managed finally, ducking his head shamefully and staring into his own coffee like he couldn’t look at him. There was that small rush of adrenaline that Kaiba had used to thrive on, making people feel as low as he could, and he wasn’t proud to admit that it immediately made him want to lapse back into trying to force Wheeler to feel below him. To make Wheeler feel _inferior_ to him.

                Christ, he needed to stop thinking about Wheeler period, or he was going to pick apart every thought he had to look for innuendos, wasn’t he?

\---

                Kaiba had noticed himself looking more. It was entirely frustrating, always catching himself noticing detail following that night in the restroom. Even more frustrating that, he had to add Joey Wheeler to that list of people he’d ever been attracted to (which he could still count on one hand, and he certainly hoped to keep it that way).

                Kaiba didn’t like romance – for one thing it was a stupid, repugnant concept and it required letting his guard down, but if that wasn’t enough, it also implied physical affections—something he despised. Kaiba didn’t like to be touched, and while he’d never been kissed on the mouth in any sort of romantic form, it sounded disgusting. Actually, all of it sounded rather disgusting. Sure, his body reacted to physical attraction, but he really didn’t understand the appeal of sex. It always sounded too messy to be worth it, no matter how good it apparently felt. And he’d heard plenty of times from plenty of people that it would change when he found the right person, but he just didn’t see it.

                The only memory that Kaiba had of romance that was even remotely positive was from before he’d even been in the orphanage—when he’d still been a young child. It felt like an eternity ago, but he still remembered it, even if it was hazy with age. He remembered his parents, the only example of real love that he’d believed. The logical, cynical part of him had always insisted that it was just him looking at his past with rose colored glasses, but even his own straight-thinking brain couldn’t convince him that it wasn’t, so it was one of the few things in his life that he’d merely accepted. He remembered them being happy, and that was enough for him to believe that there was something there that made it worthwhile.

                Kaiba had no hope of that happening for himself, and so he’d given up on the idea outright a long time ago. The fact that Wheeler had stirred up any of these emotions at all, even if it was just physical attraction, irritated him. Maybe it was because he’d never felt them and he wasn’t able to compartmentalize them so well, though the more likely case, as Seto had decided, was that it was just another reminder that his life would never be the same without his parents in it. He would never be able to conceptualize a love like that, and in that sense, he’d already failed entirely at that facet of life—one that people focused on entirely too much.

                He didn’t like being reminded of his failures. The only option he had to deal with these apparent emotional failures was to crush them—which is what he was trying to do. It felt impossible when his own brain betrayed him consistently for a half a week, stirring up that reminder of what he’d never had to the front of his mind over physical attraction out of pure social conditioning. It was simple, really, had he not been raised in a society which immediately associated physical attraction and romantic feelings, he wouldn’t be dealing with this. Or, maybe he wouldn’t be feeling this even if he had been raised in a society which wasn’t so romance-focused.

                If that was the case, maybe he’d never have been born in the first place.

                What had taken the biggest toll on Kaiba was probably the loss of sleep. His thoughts tended to plague him enough without the addition of trying to cope with new feelings towards someone he’d known for years and had considered a friendly rival up until very recently. He didn’t like it. Or…. Maybe he did? As with most feelings, Kaiba felt conflicted about it, and he didn’t imagine that was going to change anytime soon. At this point, he’d basically accepted it, and tried to snuff the feelings out as much as he was able to.

                But the thing was, he wasn’t sure he was as angry about being physically attracted to Joey Wheeler as he should be. Sure, he wasn’t happy about it, but attraction was just that—attraction. There wasn’t any real foundation to attraction, and so he concluded that Joey wasn’t likely to be a fixture in his life forever. More than likely, his issues with the loan sharks would be resolved and Kaiba wouldn’t see him again until the next Kaiba Corp tournament. Then it would only be in passing—not long enough for any emotional attachment to form, and not long enough to stir up any of the “flames of passion” as people called it. It was purely aesthetic attraction and that suited his lifestyle just fine.

                That’s all it was. Just a reminder of the family that he’d never be permitted to have.


	7. Teach Me to Dance

                It would be a lie to say that Kaiba wasn’t predictable. Joey’d noticed it very quickly, especially now that it seemed that Kaiba had been attempting to make a concerted effort to try to be nicer to him. Joey had been more than a little suspicious at first, but after speaking with both Kaiba and Mokuba, his ruffled feathers had been mostly smoothed. He’d heard a little about what had been going on in the Kaiba family’s life recently, and it subdued his knee-jerk reaction to find everything that Kaiba did suspicious.  

                Talking with Mokuba had been especially insightful – he’d let slip that Kaiba had been putting time and energy into a change for the better—and Joey knew now that Kaiba had been seeing a psychologist and making an attempt to swallow some of his pride. If Joey had to make a guess as to his motivation… well, he could relate. Kaiba was probably realizing very quickly that Mokuba may do to him just what Shizuka had done to Joey – moved far away for school. Kaiba had never been a social butterfly, and he’d spent the better part of his life as an irritable recluse, but Mokuba had come an amazing way since when Joey had first been introduced to him as a ratty haired twerp who had tried to aid Kaiba in killing him. Mokuba had friends, connections in high places, and he took after his brother’s intelligence. Sure, Kaiba had a big shadow to stand in, but it seemed like Mokuba was flourishing and may very well surpass Kaiba in that respect.

                He could remember how badly it had torn Yugi apart to have to bid farewell to Atem— to see him finally cross into the afterlife and find his peace—but from what Joey remembered from his position two arms lengths away, it seemed to have just as large an impact on Kaiba to lose his sworn rival. Something had changed, Kaiba had seemed to curl into himself physically and mentally. There had been a period where he had started to resemble that gaunt, angry teenager that he’d been when he’d first shown up in their lives. Lanky, unhealthily skinny with tired looking eyes and a face that never seemed to show any real joy. He’d gone so far as to almost entirely avoid everyone except for Yugi and his brother—Yugi seemingly the only other person who truly related to that feeling and Mokuba being his sole family member and dependent. He’d seemed to pull himself out of it, or at the very least he seemed to be less outward about his keyed-up misery than he’d used to be if it was still lingering. Joey had never really liked Kaiba at the time, but even still it had hurt a little to see him looking like something had broken deep inside of him. He’d never been the one to reach out though, he probably was one of the last people Kaiba would have wanted to see, he was just as sure of that fact now as he had been then.

                That had always been Yugi. Speaking of Yugi…. Perhaps he should ask him. Yugi seemed to understand Kaiba on a level beyond anyone-- especially now that he worked partially for Kaiba Corp and was a sponsored duelist. That might be a good idea. Joey wasn’t entirely sure _what_ he’d done wrong, but whatever it was that he had, he wanted to resolve it. It was going to be a very, _very_ , long sublet if Kaiba dropped all contact to him now.      

                It wasn’t like Joey hadn’t been direct about it—he’d asked Kaiba face to face if he was upset and he’d been waved off and given the same blunt response he had been the morning he’d woken up with a hangover. Joey couldn’t be sure, but he really doubted that Kaiba would be that devastated by him breaking a rule that he hadn’t even know existed by bringing someone into the Kaiba manor for sex. _Rather_ , Joey had never broken the rule in the first place, but he didn’t want to have to sit and explain that to Kaiba. Sure, a drunken make out in a bar was good and all, but he was subletting with Kaiba to avoid dangerous people, the less people who had access to his personal room the better. It was hard to tell who was getting paid off by who, and he needed his residence to be private for his own safety.

                Joey tended to struggle when it came to an indirect approach, though. He hummed, digging his phone out from his pocket as he lazed on his bed, looking at it for a long, debating moment before he finally decided he was going to text his friend.

_[Feb 27 th 2:30:12 PM - Joey] Hey, do you have a minute to get together and talk? I have a question for you._

_[Feb 27 th 2:32:43 PM - Yugi] I’m a little busy helping with the event tonight, but I can try and clear up a minute or two if it’s super important._

_Event?_ Joey couldn’t remember Kaiba ever mentioning it, but if Yugi was working on it on the clock while at Kaiba Corp then it was probably for the company or one of its offshoots.

_[Feb 27 th 2:35:01 PM - Joey] I mean…. I guess it’s not so important._

_[Feb 27 th 2:36:15 PM - Yugi] I’m free tomorrow, if that’s any better._

_[Feb 27 th 2:37:32 PM - Yugi] Or if you wanna just talk to me tonight we can do that too. I’m guessing you’ll be there too._

_[Feb 27 th 2:38:02 PM - Joey] Huh??????_

_[Feb 27 th 2:41:34 PM - Joey] ???????_

                Joey was entirely lost. If he was supposed to be attending an event, he hadn’t been informed of it. Of course, he was working so it was taking Yugi a while to respond. Of course it would—he was busy all the time now that he worked for Kaiba, and it wasn’t like Joey’s job where there were dead periods where his manager wouldn’t mind him checking his phone on the clock.

_[Feb 27 th 2:45:45 PM - Yugi] Didn’t Kaiba mention it to you? I told him he may want to invite you. It’s a pre-release party for his new tech in preparation for next summer’s Kaiba Cup Tournament. I know he has a big announcement planned and everything._

_[Feb 27 th 2:46:33 PM - Joey] Kaiba barely talks to me about anything… :/_

_[Feb 27 th 2:48: 10 PM - Yugi] Oh. It probably slipped his mind. It doesn’t really seem like something you’d like very much anyway, to be honest._

_[Feb 27 th 2:49:20 PM - Yugi] It’s most schmoozing with bigwigs. _ _(_ _；￣_ _Д_ _￣）_

_[Feb 27 th 2:50:10 PM - Joey] Ah. That’s alright. I’d probably make an ass of myself anyway._

_[Feb 27 th 2:50:59 PM - Joey] So tomorrow, then?_

_[Feb 27 th 2:51:45 PM - Yugi] Sure! We can meet around lunchtime, kay?_

                Joey stared at his phone for a long, silent minute after his last text, not entirely sure what he’d been expecting. It felt juvenile, but when Yugi had mentioned a duel monsters event and he hadn’t been invited to it… well, his stomach had sunk a little bit. Fuck, he’d been letting himself slip a little, sure, he was working now and never really had time to duel in the off seasons, but he wasn’t being forgotten about, was he? He’d liked to think that things were starting to feel amicable with Kaiba, but maybe that had just been wishful thinking. Kaiba certainly didn’t seem too keen on being around him right now. Maybe nothing had changed at all and Kaiba had just taken pity on Joey.

                Why did Joey even care so much? Was… he really that lonely?

                Joey hated that thought, but it rang unfortunately true. He’d been missing his friends dearly—knowing that Tea and Tristan and Yugi were all off doing their things and making their lives better. Tea was doing well in dance school, Tristan was having fun at trade school learning how to work on motorcycles as a profession and working up to mechanical engineering. Hell, even Yugi was doing amazing, it still blew Joey’s mind to know that he had gained widespread fame, a loyal fan club, and his face plastered on duel monsters advertisements. They’d promised they’d always be friends, and they were, but god twenty miles apart or ten-thousand it didn’t seem to matter. It felt like they had just sort of dropped off the face of the planet.

                No. That wasn’t the right way to word that. They were carving their own paths in the world, the one who’d dropped off the face of the planet had been Joey. He’d been the one who’d been immediately lost coming out of school – his marks weren’t high enough to get him into university, his battles weren’t spectacular enough to draw the attention of duel monsters sponsors, and the things he was good at (brawling, confidence, luck, model making, _all of it_ ) hadn’t been anything special enough to land him a job. Fuck, his sister was doing better than him, a fact that his mother had made perfectly clear in the maybe 10 words she’d said to him in the time since he’d graduated. And god…. His dad was trying his damnest to be better, but it tore Joey apart to have to watch him get to a point where he was sober and then the inevitable relapses back into alcoholism and the resulting issues it had caused with employment and living an honest life. Between all of it Joey had struggled a lot since he’d gotten out of school and he was lucky to have landed the steady jobs that he did, lucky that they were forgiving for the days when he just had been pushed to his breaking point by one thing or another and couldn’t come in. He didn’t mean to sound ungrateful, though, when he said that it just plain hadn’t been enough.

                Even Kaiba seemed to have his life more put together than Joey had. He’d calmed down, grown up, grown into himself more. Graduated from strange, lanky, and almost goblin-like to a healthier, elfish physique with better complexion and an almost supernatural grace that just seemed to compliment it. Joey would even dare to say he was handsome, and that seemed less and less to be a subjective opinion. Sure, he still had the air of “I’m a huge fucking prick and I like making you feel shitty because you’re poor”, but he could literally have his pick of any one of the hundreds of people who flocked to him and admired him – some for his money, some for his looks and… well, some just for Kaiba. He would never quite grasp the mentality of the fangirls who thought they could “change” him. That wasn’t mentioning the rest of his assets, most of which he’d already achieved in high school—money, an amazing, beautiful house, sports cars of many types, high end fashion, and a life in comfort eating all the best food in the world. It disgusted him to admit it in private to himself that Kaiba was a good catch, especially considering that he was younger than Joey. He was so well off, and yet Joey could barely force himself to get out of bed every morning and go to work because it felt like he was digging himself deeper and deeper into a rut.

                And like the cherry on top of the irritating sundae, Joey couldn’t even bring himself to stoop to his solution he’d found to the problem in the past. He couldn’t bring himself to be angry at Kaiba after the even miniscule amount of kindness that he’d shown him. He’d actually aged like fine wine—gotten sweeter and more complex and now Joey was left being the bitter one. What fucking sense did that make? It should have agitated him to no end, but it didn’t. Fuck, Joey was even sitting here _worried over what Seto Kaiba was thinking of him_. If his sixteen-year-old self could see him now, Joey was pretty sure he’d be knocking his own teeth down his throat in attempts to cave his face in.

                This was both the good and the bad part of those once in a blue moon day where he managed to have shifts off both of his jobs, having time to sit here and just think about his life. It had been in no small part why he’d hoped that Yugi would be off today too, but he supposed that was asking too much.

                Joey could try being _direct_ again, and was seriously debating confronting Kaiba on not inviting him to the Kaiba Corp event even after Yugi had recommended that he be invited, but even more appealing than that was hiding in his room for the rest of the day, pretending that he wasn’t throwing a hissy fit over not getting invited to a duel monsters event. God, he sounded like an elementary schooler, whining after not being invited to a birthday party. He probably just needed sleep.

                Fuck if he wasn’t a little pissed over this, though. He was a big name in dueling! He’d consistently attended the Kaiba Cup and ranked almost perfectly in the top ten each year—usually only trailing behind Kaiba and Yugi the way he always had. There was no reason Kaiba shouldn’t have given him a chance to come.

                Joey growled, irritated at himself for falling immediately back into that same pit of agitation, and flinging himself backwards against the overstuffed pillows on his bed in his frustration. He wanted to scream or punch or drink, but he swore to himself that he was going to be better than the family that he came from. He was going to be better than how he was raised.

                There was the sound of someone knocking on his door. At the worse possible time. Of course, this is just how it went in the Kaiba manor. If he didn’t know better he’d suspect that Kaiba planned it this way.

                “What?!” He snipped, not bothering with niceties or moving to answer the door. In fact, he didn’t even stop looking at the ceiling. The door opened, he heard it, but it was followed by silence. Joey was about half a second from asking why they were so quiet when Kaiba appeared in the peripheral of his vision. Joey glanced over at him, noting that his hair was smoothed to perfection and he’d worn a suit and tie instead of his typical clothing – no turtleneck sweaters to hide in and no dusters to make him look like a hair band reject.

                “Wheeler.” His tone was measured and cold, eerily reminiscent of how things used to be. “Do you have something presentable to wear?”

                “For what, moneybags?” Joey’s face twisted into a sneer and he pretended not to notice the way Kaiba’s lips twitched ever so slightly downward at the nickname.

                “You’re going to attend the announcement tonight. Security will turn you away at the door if you show up in… _that_.” Kaiba paused to tip his chin and gesture to the ratty hoody and sweatpants that he was relaxing in.

                “Don’t I have a say in this? Maybe I have plans, jackass.” Joey was surprised that Kaiba had brought it up at all. Knowing Yugi, he probably mentioned something to him after their exchange of texts.

                “Yeah. _Plans_.” Kaiba snorted. “I’m sure. Get up Wheeler.”

                “What the fuck is that supposed to mean, Kaiba?” He was starting to wear on Joey’s already thin patience. “You could have fucking invited me earlier than the day of. Sucks for you I’ve already got a date with my bed penciled in.”

                “Well, I would have invited you earlier if you hadn’t stormed out of the manor before I could speak with you about it during dinner. I guess drinking was more important.” Kaiba shot him a glare that could wither plants it was so cold.

                “Oh… Right…” Joey sighed, rolling on the bed so that he could no longer see the other, too tired to fight this fight and wanting to sink into the sheets before he was held liable to start throwing punches.

                “You never answered the question. I’m not leaving until I have an answer.”

                “No, I don’t have a suit, Kaiba! Why do you give a fuck? I thought a ‘third-rate duelist with a fourth-rate deck” wouldn’t belong at a Kaiba Corp event?” Joey groused.

                “I haven’t said that in literal years, Wheeler.” Kaiba was starting to sound just as irritated as Joey felt. _Good_. “I’m not fighting you over this, if you want to be an antagonistic child about this then it’s no skin off my back. I’m not the one who’s extending the invitation in the first place.” There was something venomous in those words that made Joey’s skin crawl as his gut felt heavy with a stone of guilt. Joey heard Kaiba turn and start walking away, and he panicked, realizing that if he didn’t say something he was going to be left here to wallow in his bed for the rest of the night. And over what? A party that he’d been invited to a little late? Kaiba was right, and god it pissed him off to admit that, but he was being immature and taking his frustrations at his own life out on Kaiba, and Kaiba really hadn’t done anything this time.

                “I can’t afford a suit, Kaiba.” Joey was frank, feeling the massive blow to his ego. He’d never liked admitting when things were wrong, and even if he was sure that Kaiba had made some guesses about his financial situation already. He didn’t want to be pitied, and he always tried to kick back against it as hard as he could with brute force. He hated the feeling of being looked down on by anyone.

                Joey didn’t move to look at him, but there was another long beat of silence, and something unsaid hung in the air that Joey wasn’t sure how to interpret. He didn’t even know if the person leaving something unsaid was him.

                “What size are you, Wheeler?” Kaiba asked finally, and Joey smirked and shook his head though the line of his shoulders were tense.

                “No idea. I haven’t been fitted for a suit since I was a little kid and my parents were getting married.”

                “Well, are you coming or not?”

                “Kaiba, I literally just told you I don’t have a suit how am I supposed to come without—”

                “Not to the party, use your goddamned context clues Wheeler.” Kaiba sighed, and Joey could practically hear him roll his eyes. “I might have a suit lying around that will fit your scrawny ass.”

                Joey shifted slowly up into a sitting position on the bed, blinking slowly at the other and meeting his gaze for the first time in what felt like forever.

                “It won’t be an embarrassment to invite such a ‘third-rate’ duelist to your event?” Joey wasn’t sure if Kaiba realized that he was seeking validation, nor did he really think he wanted him to. Either way, Kaiba studied him the way he would study his phone when he read the morning news and stocks, and then rolled his eyes again.

                “Don’t flatter yourself, Wheeler. The event is prestigious but it’s not _that_ prestigious.” Kaiba smiled—or at least the closest to a smile that Joey had ever seen Kaiba emote. It felt strange, but infectious, and Joey found himself smiling back. The pit of guilt in his stomach loosened itself, instead feeling warm at the relief of knowing that the other maybe hadn’t been avoiding him intentionally.

\---

                Joey was standing in one of the spare rooms of this massive house, watching as Kaiba rooted through a storage closet, as he’d called it, occasionally pausing to pile things into Joey’s arms that looked suitable and might fit him. Joey’s mind wandered while he allowed Kaiba to put his discerning eyes to work.

                The suits were beautiful, though very clearly had been tailored for Kaiba. Their colors suited him—most whites and blues to replicate the color of his favored dragon. Or maybe they were that way because it flattered Kaiba. It was hard telling; the man knew how to color coordinate with his monster.

                Kaiba had pressed a button on his wristwatch – wrist device? It seemed to do more than a watch should be able to, and it rung through to another line.

                “What’s up, big bro?”

                “Mokuba, I know you’re getting ready, but could you page the family tailor and ask her to come upstairs for some hemming?” he asked, still shifting fabrics this way and that, looking for a…. something. Joey had never worn a suit this fancy. Was it a vest?

                “Ok big bro.” Mokuba laughed easily, all fondness for his brother. Joey wondered why, though he wondered if Kaiba had laid out his plan to Mokuba to help Joey prepare. That would mean that he’d planned on Joey not having a suit, and that was an option Joey wasn’t too keen on. He didn’t like being that easily read about his finances. Kaiba seemed to find what he wanted, laying another soft looking red swath of fabric over his arms and then ending the call with his brother.

                “Change.”

                “Huh?”

                “I mean get changed.” Kaiba motioned with his arms to Joey’s body before he turned back to the closet to consider the selection of ties. Joey shifted in place, clearing his throat and waited a moment for Kaiba to leave. It took him several more seconds to realize that Kaiba seemed to have no intention to do that.

                “Right now?”

                “Wh—yes right now, Wheeler. We don’t have time for you to putz around.”

                “Oh.”

                There was an awkward pause, and Kaiba turned to look at him finally from the closet after realizing that he still wasn’t moving to dress.

                “’Oh’ What?”

                “About that… I’m uh… _freeballing._ ” Joey gave Kaiba a sheepish smile. Kaiba quirked an eyebrow.

                “ _You’re what?_ ”

                “Oh Christ. Uh. Free swinging? Going commando?”

                “I have no fucking idea what you’re saying to me, Wheeler.”

                “Fucking.” Joey sighed, shifting the clothing in his arms so that he could free a hand to reach up and rub at his reddened cheeks. “I’m not wearing underwear, Kaiba. I don’t think you want me changing in here.”

                Kaiba stared at him for a long moment, his mind seeming to have to grind through his words before he clapped a hand over his mouth and turned his back to Joey. Joey had assumed that he’d been disgusted, but on closer inspection, the way Kaiba was trembling he seemed to be laughing. A genuine laugh, albeit one he was trying to hide, and not one of the creepy maniacal ones. Joey wasn’t sure what to do with that information and decided to file that one away into the “holy shit, Kaiba is a human?” file to be dealt with later.

                “I have no idea what I expected from you, Wheeler. I don’t care that much, I may not know you that well but I’m guessing you’re probably equipped with the same parts I am. Do whatever you want.” Kaiba shrugged it off, taking a moment to school his expression into stony indifference once more before he went back to searching through his options and weighing them against one another for some criteria that Joey wasn’t privy to. Joey debated for a moment before deciding that ultimately, he didn’t really care. He was confident in his body, so he didn’t see why he should have to hide himself if Kaiba didn’t care. He did, however, turn his back to the other, perchance he had to look behind him he wouldn’t immediately have to see dick.

                He sat the suit pieces down on the bed and easily peeled his way out of hoodie and sweatpants—that was the appeal of his lazy clothes, after all. He sorted through the bunched fabrics on the bed, opting for the pants first. He pulled them on, and they fit him decently though they were considerably too long for his legs. He supposed that was a job for the tailor. He would have bet that his ass looked great, though, they seemed to hug.

                Then was the button up, which didn’t give him much fuss. Though…

                Joey glanced around for a mirror, trying to see one so he could tuck his shirt into his pants in a way that looked right. He found one, the wall just next to Kaiba. Joey shivered a little, thinking that he caught Kaiba looking at him through it before he’d darted his eyes away. He pushed the thought out of his mind, there was no way that Kaiba had been checking him out. Actually, Joey was pretty sure Kaiba was part of a species that reproduced asexually and therefore had no need for “superfluous aesthetic desires”, but that was a theory for another day.

                Joey approached the mirror tucking the shirt into the pants a little sloppily, though if Kaiba had any objections he didn’t voice them as he stepped closer and laid a tie over his shoulder to check it against his outfit so far. It looked… simple. He didn’t think he was going to wow anyone, but at least he would look nice. Joey thought it over as Kaiba gathered the rest of the suit off the bed, muttering something about wrinkles. It was a black suit for the most part, the only outliers were a black and white striped tie, the red vest, and the white belt that Kaiba had given him. It would look lovely, he was sure, and it was thoughtful of Kaiba not to just shove him into one of his blue and white suits.

                Joey lifted the tie off his shoulder and giving it a once over by the time Kaiba had returned to his side with the clothes neatly tucked over his arm.

                “You don’t know how to tie it, do you?”

                “Absolutely not.” Kaiba sighed, laying the clothes back down and returning to Joey, draping the tie over the other’s neck and fixing his collar over it. This close, Joey noticed his cologne, something crisp and pleasant but a little bit woodsy. He was a little jealous, Kaiba seemed to pull this off so easily, being well-dressed. With Joey it was a little like trying to put a cat into a Halloween costume, it only ended in bodily injury and frustration.

                Kaiba worked quickly but gently, his fingers gently tracing over the tie with a practiced precision and occasionally pressing gently fingers against Joey’s collar. It wasn’t something he would have ever thought Kaiba was capable of, being so gentle.

                “You must have taught your brother how to do this.” Joey laughed softly, not meeting the other’s eyes. “You’re gentle. I half expected you to try and choke me with it.”

                “Don’t tempt me, Wheeler, I’ll do it.”

                “Is that a threat or a promise?”

                Fuck. Why had he just said that? Joey had tried to catch himself before he’d said it, but here he was just hitting on Kaiba in his own house while the other tried to help him get dressed. He had hoped that Kaiba hadn’t noticed, but if the way his face betrayed him was anything to go by, he’d noticed and tried very quickly to brush it under the rug. Fuck. Joey felt a little like an idiot, though it was hard to really feel too bad over it when he hadn’t meant to do it in the first place. He was always a flirt, but damn now was one of those times that he really wished he had a better control on his impulses like that. Fucking hitting on Kaiba of all people, the same person he’d just imagined as a sexless alien less than five minutes ago. He wasn’t sure what on earth had made him think that would work.

                Kaiba cleared his throat, visibly uncomfortable as he took a step back, checked that the tie was straight and then immediately turned away from Joey to go and fidget with something else.  It occurred to Joey that Kaiba probably had no idea how to handle a friend hitting on him, so Joey wouldn’t fault him for it.

                “Thank you. And… sorry.” Joey offered, feeling his face heat up in his embarrassment. Kaiba made a noise to signal that he’d heard but didn’t turn to face him again. He was glad that Kaiba didn’t ask him what he was apologizing for, because he thought the shame might kill him.

\---

                Aside from Joey’s little blunder earlier in the night, he was feeling very confident. After the tailor had made a few minor alterations, the suit that Kaiba had scrounged up made Joey look like a million bucks. He had to admit, Kaiba had an eye for dressing, the fabric was surprisingly comfortable for a suit, and the red flattered him so nicely. And his ass did, in fact, look great. Fuck, it was a real shame that Joey couldn’t hook up with anyone tonight, because he was pretty sure he might just be able to land someone way out of his league. Oh well.

                Kaiba had provided his ride, and that had been an experience. Kaiba’s security had opened the rear car door and immediately Joey was dazzled with the flashing of cameras as Kaiba stepped out first. _Holy fuck he hadn’t expected the paparazzi_. He probably should have, Kaiba really was a celebrity of sorts, and of course a massive press release like this was going to get some attention when it was announced publicly. It would probably be televised too, and Joey had a feeling like he was going to be out of his depth in about two seconds.

                He followed Kaiba out of the car after giving him a moment to shuffle past the first wave of reporters, shooting glares at some and answering questions in as few words as he could. He was almost blinded with the back flash of cameras. Thank god the reporters mostly left him be, only a few of the sleezier ones stopping him to pry and see if he and Kaiba were a couple—all of which he turned down with laughter because the prospect tickled him pink.

                Joey followed haltingly behind Kaiba until they were inside. Thankfully it was calm on the inside, mostly older men in suits milling around and speaking to one another about things that went over Joey’s head. Kaiba made quick work of disappearing, but Joey managed to find Yugi and he followed him around like a lost puppy for as long as he could. Yugi had been right, it was mostly schmoozing with business partners of Kaiba Corp, and he let Yugi do the talking while he stayed silent and nursed a glass of Champaign to ease his nerves. It wasn’t all old guys, either, there were some very handsome young upstarts, duel monsters duelists from the region who were old enough to sign sponsorships, and some very pretty (and very, very intimidating) business women who worked with Kaiba Corp PR and marketing.

                When they were finally able to have a seat and Joey was able to sit down next to Yugi while awaiting the actual moment that Kaiba would step onstage and make his announcement. The din of the rest of the room dropped down to a low roar.

                “So, uh… what all are we meant to do here tonight? It is a like… party, right?” Joey asked hushedly, leaning in closer to his friend. Yugi laughed softly.

                “Sort of. The party part doesn’t really start until after he gives the announcement. Then they open the bar and they have a dance floor where you can dance. Well, not like fun dancing, more like ballroom dancing. Again, mostly just mingling with people and trying to make connections.” Yugi nudged him with his arm. “You might get asked to dance by someone cute if you’re lucky.” Yugi paused, as if in thought, and then added, even more softly. “Or maybe you could find a sugar daddy. I guess this would be a good place to do that.”

                Joey’s jaw dropped, and he shot a look at his friend, absolutely flabbergasted that his friend would say something like that to him. Yugi just offered an impish and knowing smile. Was it rude to put your friend in a headlock at a business event?

                He didn’t have time to figure out the answer to that question as one of the Kaiba corporation employees stepped up onto the podium and began to speak.

                “ _Ladies and Gentlemen_ …” She began, and a hush fell over the room as the lights dimmed around them as the spotlight on the stage drew attention to her. Joey glanced around the room, honestly a little surprised by the sheer volume of people who were here, in Domino city. He would expect something like this in Tokyo or even Osaka, but somewhere as small as Domino it was hard to believe that there were this many people staying in this little business town. He should have expected it; Duel monsters always drew a crowd and Kaiba especially so. This was just so much more… formal than he’d ever seen the game look. “ _We would like to welcome our esteemed guests to a very special occasion. As you know, Kaiba corporation has been a respected leader in hologram technology and the development of…”_

Joey had pretty much zoned out listening to her, he didn’t need to hear the spiel, he was already aware of all of this. He’d been there for a lot of it, considering his first introduction to Kaiba Corporation hologram technology had been dedicated to trying to kill Yugi. And him. And all his friends. He was glad that he’d redirected the focus to duel monsters after his stint in the hospital, but he’d already heard and seen all of this before. Kaiba was making improvements every year, sure, things felt more real and looked better, but at this point it was something he’d heard of and kept up with because of the nature of being a part time duelist.

                Joey instead scanned through the room again, letting his mind wander. He had to imagine that Kaiba had already slipped backstage to get ready for the presentation, and Joey had to wonder how he prepared himself for things like this. Joey wasn’t a shy person in the slightest, but he couldn’t imagine being forced to stand in front of a crowd like this and speak clearly, confidently, and not let himself stumble over his words. He didn’t give Kaiba credit for much, but he had next level self-assurance to make these kinds of appearances on the regular.

                Joey was pulled back out of his thoughts as the room roared to life with applause as Kaiba stepped out and walked up to the podium, wearing a familiar fatalistic expression as he awaited the noise to dull. Joey couldn’t bring himself to really focus on what he was saying either—there was a reason he’d never really gotten high marks in school. Instead, he took a moment to examine Kaiba in his apparent natural habitat. Kaiba stood with his head held high, prim and proper in an unnatural way, but flattered amazingly well by his suit in eggshell white and sapphire with gold cufflinks. It made Joey’s stomach roll in an unpleasant way, and he felt distinctly like he was out of place even sitting in his presence. He was aware that Kaiba had done nothing to try and chase him off tonight, even going so far as to actively try to get him to tag along, but it felt foreign to him.

                He jumped slightly, feeling a touch on his arm. He glanced over, realizing it was Yugi, eyes still focused ahead of him but providing a comforting weight on Joey’s arm. Joey wasn’t quite sure how Yugi had recognized his discomfort, he seemed to know his tells though. Joey leaned into the touch, trying to refocus on what was being said.

                “In addition to a revamped hologram system, on behalf of Kaiba corporation as a whole, we have decided to help push forward more of our core values.” Kaiba paused long enough that there was a murmur through the crowd, then he smiled, noticeably more relaxed than the usual smiles but just as fake as them. “As I’m sure many of you are aware, Kaiba corporation has undergone major changes since I stepped up as the President of the company. In the past we’ve changed the aim of our company to be more geared towards bringing joy to a younger generation.”

                Joey perked up a little, furrowing his brow and wondering for a moment about Kaiba. He’d assumed that Kaiba had done a lot of the things in his past for self-serving reasons. After all, he’d had a passion for duel monsters and his whole theme park had been themed around his monsters.

                “In the interest of gearing Duel Monsters to a new generation of kids and to help to continue to  bring joy to our future, Kaiba corporation would like to officially announce the construction of the Duel Academy.” Kaiba gestured behind him onstage to the large screen, which glowed to life showing the blueprints for what appeared to be a university campus. “We are currently considering this a sort of pretest for the concept of a chain of schools geared towards helping teenagers who are interested in making a career of Duel Monsters in the burgeoning market of the professional duel monsters circuit.”

                Yugi nudged Joey again and startled him – he’d apparently gotten more absorbed in the presentation that he’d thought he would.

                “Pretty interesting, right?” Yugi asked, giving Joey a look that he couldn’t quite read, but seemed to be prying him for… something.

                “Yeah, I mean…” Joey snorted, rolling his eyes. “Sort of wish that had been an option four years ago.” He added under his breath. Yugi tipped his head at him, apparently not the answer that he’d been looking for.

                “He’s been working on this a long time.” Yugi said finally, voice still low. “He’s been trying to be better for more than just himself. I think he’s started to realize that he’s looked at as a role model.” Joey screwed up his face, trying to figure out where Yugi was going with this. Yugi waited all of about 10 seconds before he decided he should just finish his thought. “Please don’t insult him for this. It’s important to him.”

                Joey was a little taken aback, especially by the way that Yugi seemed to side eye him. Man, he would never have thought that his own friend would have pegged him for the type to insult Kaiba over doing something nice, but then again…. Yeah, he had been doing exactly that for almost the last three weeks.

                “I don’t plan on being a dick.” Joey added, finally. Yugi nodded, turning to focus his attention back to Kaiba, who was still speaking, now well into wrapping up the conference and giving his final statements. Joey tuned him out for the most part, still mulling over what Yugi had said and wondering just how much he’d really missed in the time that he’d dropped off the face of the planet.

\---

                Joey had made his way to the bar almost immediately as soon as the lights had come back on, his emotions getting the best of him. He could remember swearing up and down during his work shift after his hangover that he would never drink again, but here he was, trying to argue with himself that he wasn’t inheriting his father’s bad coping mechanisms. Now he was sulking at his table and trying to ignore the world while people chattered and awaited the actual festivities to begin. Joey hadn’t even realized when Yugi said that there would be schmoozing that it would be an actual party which involved dancing and party games.

                He wasn’t in the mood. It really wasn’t Yugi’s fault, it was Joey’s. Yugi had seen firsthand Joey being hostile towards Kaiba for no real reason on several occasions, but it had never hit him how aggressive he really was until Yugi had pointed it out. Now he felt bad because even though he’d caught himself being rude several times, it was a wonder why Kaiba tolerated him at all, especially since he was sure that he’d done more than the obvious that was grounds enough to piss Kaiba off.

                He’d entirely forgotten that part of why he’d wanted to see Yugi was to ask him about Kaiba and what made him tick, and now that was niggling at the back of his mind now that his friend had been swept off into the crowds again.

                There was the sound of a chair scraping against the floorboards across the table, and Joey pointedly ignored whoever was sitting across from him, instead knocking back his third Old Fashioned and relishing in the burn of the alcohol as it hit the back of his throat.

                “You should slow down, Wheeler.” Joey nearly jumped out of his skin, not expecting in a million years for it to be Kaiba who’d sat down across from him. Joey didn’t mean to glare at him, but he did. Kaiba merely gave him an amused look. “It’s uncouth to be the first one drunk at a high-class party. Then again, you’re not driving home, so I suppose do what’s fun for you.”

                “Speaking of high-class parties, don’t you have one you should be hosting?”

                “Last time I checked, you were a guest too.” Joey sighed, shifting in his seat and getting the distinct feeling that he wasn’t going to be left alone until he held his end of the conversation.

                “What exactly am I supposed to do here, Kaiba?” He asked finally, shifting in his seat and running his hands through his hair, only to have Kaiba reach across the table, swatting at his hands.

                “Well, to start, not that.” Kaiba frowned, fixing up Joey’s hair again in a way which was entirely too intimate for the situation. Kaiba fussed until he was pleased, and then sat back in the chair. “You’re nearly as bad as Mokuba. You just need to talk to people. Be polite and have fun. Believe it or not we have souls too.” Joey snorted again, and Kaiba made a gesture of concession. “Well. Most of us anyway. Enough to have some fun. And if you don’t want to bother with the games there’s a dance floor. I mean, it’s meant for ballroom dancing, but I’m sure you could find a way to have fun with it.”

                “’m good.” Joey sighed, staring down at his lowball glass and wishing he had another Old Fashioned so he could stop feeling for the night and just forget the whole thing. Again, not healthy, but right now he didn’t care, and he was exhausted by his entire situation.

                Kaiba looked at him in silence for a long time, and then he shifted stiffly in his seat.

                “I won’t stop you, but you’ll have to deal with the hangover in the morning.” Kaiba shrugged, settling into his seat and people watching while Joey wallowed.

                “Good evening, Kaiba, sir.” Both Joey and Kaiba glanced up, a little surprised to see they were being approached by a young woman that was their age, smiling at Kaiba in particular. She didn’t even seem to notice Joey, entirely focused on the Kaiba Corp CEO. Kaiba gave that fake smile again, extending a hand out to her to shake her hand. “I’m Cassandra, daughter of the vice president of the Castile and Malcom software development company.”

                Kaiba and her spoke about business, nothing that was particularly interesting to Joey, but he was interested in her. She was foreign, though he was unsure from where, and quite pretty. He wasn’t sure why she would choose to hang around Kaiba, of all people.

                “So, sir… Care for a dance?” She asked finally, flashing a flirty smile at Kaiba, and Joey’s gaze refocused – suddenly feeling a lot more sober. He almost wanted to laugh, but that felt a little mean considering that this poor girl was about to have her feelings crushed by Kaiba as many had before. Kaiba didn’t flirt with anyone.

                “Of course.”

                Joey’s jaw dropped visibly, judging by the glare that Kaiba shot him, and he watched as Kaiba crossed the room with the young foreign woman. He couldn’t believe that had just happened, Seto Kaiba, the world’s most infamous bachelor and asshole extraordinaire, had accepted a dance. Joey had to see this, he could only imagine Kaiba tangling himself in his own legs like a shitty giraffe.

                Joey waved at one of the passing waitresses, who passed him a glass of Champaign. Not to his taste, but he wouldn’t dare move from his seat to go get another drink right now, there was no way he was going to miss this. He smirked at himself, holding his Champaign up to his lips and sipping it while he watched Kaiba move stiffly.

                It turned out he was going to be sorely disappointed, Kaiba took his position to lead and guiding her through the dance with grace that always seemed to follow him no matter how gangly he looked. Joey clenched his teeth, but watched them as they swayed, Kaiba putting on an entirely too convincing smile, privy to some private conversation. Probably about the weather or what life was like in Domino, or some other boring shit that Kaiba could find to prattle on about. It was really irritating, really, how much luck seemed to favor Kaiba.

                _Joey was supposed to be the lucky one_. That was basically what he’d been good at all his life, and it really irked him how much of an advantage Kaiba seemed to have over him. Still, he was a little fascinated to watch them move. They must both have been professionally trained, and Joey was forced to wonder if it was just because they were both wealthy.

                Kaiba seemed to glide as he moved, his long legs seeming to serve the dance more than hinder it for his long stride, easily guiding them both along the floor in little flourishes and spins.

                Joey had seen enough. He sighed, standing up and walking over to the bar, ready for another drink.

\---

                Kaiba gave the heiress, Cassandra, a soft goodbye and a smile, then turning and almost immediately feeling himself frown – as if he felt the need to overcorrect after putting on a fake smile for that long. More than likely she’d been prompted by her parents to seek him out for a dance. He’d been through the ploy several times in the past – invited to dinner by heiresses and heirs, or in more obvious attempts, invited home for a “hot night”. He was disinterested in both, for obvious reasons, wanting nothing more than to return home and either get back to work or back to bed.

                Kaiba made to return to Joey – to finish his thought and try and encourage him to pull himself out of his funk. He’d started the night off in bad mood and he really didn’t want to deal with Joey being upset again. Especially not upset at him. Kaiba still hadn’t pieced together quite why he’d been angry, Joey was… sort of an enigma. That may have explained why Kaiba was drawn to him – it was a puzzle for Kaiba to solve. Then again, he really didn’t know that he’d ever be capable of understanding the inner workings of the other’s mind.

                Joey had moved, and Kaiba sighed, having a good guess at where he went. Kaiba’s suspicion was confirmed when he turned his head in the direction of the bar, easily spotting a mop of blonde hair across the room over the heads of the other patrons.

                Kaiba sighed again, pushing his way through the crowd, stepping between bodies of people who were already a little inebriated, as most wound up at the end of the night at events like this.

                Kaiba hesitated as he got a little closer, Joey turned-- visibly glassy eyed, laughing at some joke the bartender had made. That wasn’t what made him stop, though, he stopped because his chest tightened, and he felt his breath catch in his throat.

                Joey had ditched the suit jacket and rolled the sleeves on his button-up enough to show his forearms, the red flattering him even better with his face a little flushed from drinking, especially with the smile on his face. His hair was a mess again, but somehow it suited him, and his eyes seemed unnaturally warm with his laughter. Kaiba had already looked him over more than he cared to admit earlier that evening, surprised at how well his own hand me down suit fit Joey.

                Kaiba’s mind was suddenly screaming at him: _“Mistake! Mistake! This was a mistake, you are a fucking idiot!”_

                He knew there’d been a reason why he’d been dragging his feet at inviting Joey, and these ridiculous feelings were it. Joey looked hot, and it was driving Kaiba nuts, having to constantly battle with these stupid feelings. He never thought it would be particularly hard to avoid Joey Wheeler until they were living together and Kaiba had grown an attraction to him.

                Kaiba debated with himself about turning around, leaving him to have his fun at the bar and to try and get away from all of this for a little while by slipping into the crowd. Maybe he could find Yugi and get him to duel him and take his mind off it.

                The thought was too little, too late. Joey had spotted him and was approaching. God damn it.

                “Hey Kaiba!” Joey’s words were slurred, and Kaiba had to wonder how much he’d had to drink in the time between when he’d left a little under half an hour ago and now. Or rather, how much he’d had before that.

                Joey stepped into what Kaiba would have called his personal space, his brain immediately sounding alarm bells and whistles, screaming at him to back up, to go and find somewhere else to hide away from this, to build up his wall somewhere safe. Joey wobbled, and Kaiba had to place a hand on his shoulder so he wouldn’t fall into him.

                “Christ, how much did you drink, Wheeler?” Kaiba frowned, watching Joey’s alcohol addled mind try to process what he said.

                “Not much.” Joey lied through his teeth, and Kaiba wanted to shake him by the shoulders until he sobered up and quit fucking lying, but he didn’t. “’Sides, I wanted to see you.”

                “What in the world are you talking about?” Kaiba said, though he bit back the urge to say ‘ _that proves you’ve had more than you should have’._

                “Teach me how to dance!” Joey smiled widely, making Kaiba’s chest tighten and flutter again annoyingly.

                “Teach you to _what_?” Kaiba squinted at him, trying to find some sort of explanation in his features, but it didn’t give any answers.

                “Teach. Me. To dance.” Joey repeated, gesturing widely with his right hand towards the dance floor and nearly stumbling over himself again. “I saw you dancin’ out there ‘n’ I realized ‘man that must be really nice for impressing ladies’ ‘n’ shit.”

                “Wheeler, you’re drunk.” Kaiba rolled his eyes, hoping his emotions weren’t showing on his face. He could feel his face burning, though, and he suspected that he was flushed. It was irritating him, and that desire to run and find somewhere to hide was back and even louder.

                “No, I’m not. I just…” Joey paused, face changing through a spectrum of negative emotions before he seemed to settle on something between melancholy and sad. “… Fuckin’ you have beautiful women throwing themselves at your feet all the time.” Joey gestured wildly with his arms, nearly losing his balance again and forcing Kaiba to steady him again or be toppled over. “’n you have the personality of a wet fart, if I was half as good at some of the rich people shit you were, I’d be rolling in su-suit-soot –fuckin’ dates.”

                “Wheeler, you realize a lot of those people aren’t interested in me half as much as my bank account, right?” Kaiba deadpanned, sighing and glaring coldly at Wheeler, trying to make the other back down and stop getting so close. It was dangerous for him to get close, and it sent Klaxon alarms off in Kaiba’s mind every time he did. He didn’t like feeling like a cornered animal, though it probably should have been more alarming to him that the thing that was setting off that reaction was physical attraction.

                Joey grunted, apparently displeased and making a face at Kaiba that was somewhere between anger and disgust. Or maybe Wheeler was going to throw up. Kaiba’s nose turned up at the thought, a little revolted at the idea of winding up covered in Wheeler’s vomit and having to deal with the smell. It had never bothered him so much coming from his younger brother, but someone else was a different story entirely. The thought in mind, Kaiba gave Wheeler a firm push to make him step back to at least arm’s length away, blessedly relieved to have the spiral of panic in his mind be assuaged slightly.

                “Where’s Yugi? I’m sure he’d be happy to dance with you.”

                “That’s not the _point_ , Kaiba.” Joey sighed, rolling his eyes again and shrugging, turning and slinking back over to the bar. Kaiba watched, unsure if he was meant to follow or not, but Joey toss up a hand to signal to the bartender again, and the bartender glanced in Kaiba’s direction.

                Kaiba shook his head no, and the bartender in turn refused to serve Joey another drink. Kaiba didn’t think it was a good idea to take him home drunk—too unpredictable and he seemed to be caught up in some emotion that Kaiba couldn’t parse. Of course, Kaiba struggled enough to work through his own emotions.

                Either way, Kaiba felt a little sick to his stomach even trying.


	8. An Exercise In Emotion

                Joey woke up in his bed at the Kaiba manor, his head throbbing and with very little coherent memory from the night before. The sun was filtering through the blinds of the room and throwing light across his face which was hazy and entirely too bright. Joey sighed, immediately recognizing that this was a hangover, and he had broken his promise to himself to not deal with another hangover any time soon. Shit, he’d had way too much to drink.

                His mouth was cottony, so he got to his feet, grumbling to himself as he walked across the room to the attached bathroom. He didn’t even bother with one of the stupid little cups they had provided, instead just hunching his body awkwardly to drink directly from the tap. The water felt good as it splashed onto his face, anyway, serving to help wake him up a little more. He glanced into the mirror as he straightened back up. Frankly he looked like shit, but it was a hangover day and Joey had already written it off as a loss.

                While he stumbled back to his bed to burrow himself into the darkness and warmth of the comforter, he tried to piece together the memories of last night to try and figure out what had happened after it had gone downhill. He remembered up to the point of Kaiba coming to his table and sitting with him, and then he remembered feeling like shit, as he was wont to do when he was around Kaiba for too long. He remembered getting another drink at the bar and everything was a little hazy after that.

                Joey huffed, burying himself into that darkness, trying to force himself to reconnect the dots. There were a few things he remembered—Kaiba had come to see him a second time, but Joey couldn’t recall any of that conversation, just that Kaiba had seemed to be angry that he was drunk. He remembered the bartender refusing to serve him after he started to lose his faculties, and him moping around about it. He remembered the woozy car ride home where he’d spent most of it drifting into and out of sleep in between nurturing his upset stomach.

                And that was pretty much all. So, he started sorting through his current state for more clues. His head was pounding, and he felt dry and achy, so he could take a guess as to how much he’d had to drink. On top of that, his face hurt—not the way it had after he’d had the black eye, rather his eyes stung like he’d been crying. He really hoped he hadn’t done that in public, he didn’t need to feel any more ashamed of himself than he already did.

                He wanted to think more on it, but the loud buzz of his phone ringing under his pillow startled him out of it, and Joey reluctantly pulled it out to look at it. It was about then that he realized that he’d fucked up. It was already 4 pm, and Yugi had called several times. Shit, he was a terrible friend.

                Joey scrambled for a moment but managed to unlock his phone and answer the call.

                “Yugi. Shit, I slept right through you calling me I’m so sorry.” Joey stumbled over the words, expecting Yugi to lecture him.

                “That’s alright… I sort of figured you would.” Yugi laughed easily on the other side of the line. “You were pretty drunk when Kaiba took you home last night.”

                “Uh. Yeah. Sorry, I wasn’t in the best place.” Joey sighed, feeling his ears burn in shame.

                “It was pretty fun to see you dance on the tables, though.”

                “Oh shit, really?”

                “No, I’m just messing with you. You spent most of the night off to yourself. You didn’t seem to be having a very good time, I guess I should have figured you wouldn’t.”

                “Don’t feel bad Yug…. It wasn’t just the party making me feel down.” Joey felt like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders to discover he hadn’t made a fool of himself. Still, moping while drunk wasn’t a great look either. “I’ve been a little bit of a rut. I kind of wanted to talk to you about it, actually.”

                “Oh?” Yugi inquired. Joey debated spilling his guts out through the phone but decided better of it when he realized that he was still in the Kaiba manor. He didn’t think it would be too good of an idea to go around talking about his feelings about the brothers while they may well be in earshot.

                “We can talk over lunch… er, if you still wanted to get lunch.” Joey said sheepishly.

                “Of course. I still planned on it.” Yugi laughed softly into the phone and Joey breathed a sigh of relief.

                “Good. I’m glad.” Joey felt himself smile without realizing he was doing it, incredibly thankful to have a friend like Yugi. “Give me a little while to get ready and I’ll be right there.”

\---

                Joey and Yugi settled into dinner at a smaller café type of restaurant, a nicer fancier place that Yugi had insisted on because he liked the food. Joey felt even worse knowing that Yugi had firmly insisted on buying their food even after Joey had made him spend all day waiting on him to wake up from his hangover, but he also knew better than to try and argue with Yugi.

                “So, you said yesterday you had a question for me? What about?” Yugi ventured almost immediately after they had placed their order, seeming amazingly relaxed for the situation. Joey realized, however, that he was the only one who was tense, and it was entirely about _who_ he was asking Yugi about. It was silly, but he always seemed to react stupidly about Kaiba.

                “Yeah. Uhh.” Joey cleared his throat and shifted uncomfortably, trying to figure out how to word his question. He rubbed at the hairs on the back of his neck, glancing off to the side away from his friend and searching for his words.

                “… Is everything ok?” Yugi ventured tentatively, a bit of concern creeping into his voice.

                “Yeah! Yeah. Well… I think so?” Joey made a gesture to soothe his friend, trying to assure him it wasn’t really anything bad, per se. “I was actually just… wondering if you could help me out with Kaiba?”

                “Kaiba? What did he do?” Yugi seemed to perk up slightly, seeming to choose his words carefully before he said them.

                “Well. He didn’t really do anything, actually, and I think that’s what’s… throwing me off.” Joey sighed, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms. “I’m trying really hard to be civil but… I think I did something to piss him off.”

                “What makes you think he’s pissed off?”

                “Well…. I don’t know. He just sort of seems like he’s been avoiding me. He’s mostly stopped talking to me except when he has to.” Joey sighed. “I don’t know what I did. I mean, he seemed to have thought that I brought someone to his manor to sleep with but you and I both know better than that… But even when he asked me not to have that sort of company over, he didn’t really seem… angry, if that makes sense?”

                “Yeah.” Yugi rubbed at his chin for a minute and then tipped his head, looking at Joey. “Well… He hasn’t seemed upset at work either. He usually sort of lets that show on his face, so I don’t think he’s pissed. He might… just be being Kaiba?”

                “Helpful.” Joey deadpanned, shooting Yugi a look. That much was obvious.

                “Well, no. I mean like… Kaiba doesn’t really know how to treat relationships in general. You might be in his grey area.”

                “… What does that mean?” Joey squinted, trying to parse that sentence. Yugi laughed, signaling for Joey to give him a second and then rooting around in his messenger bag.

                “Ok, so…” Yugi sat a pen and a pocket notebook on the table, scribbling out a diagram before twisting it around so that Joey could see.

                In the center, there was a stick man labelled _Kaiba_ , then there were two columns drawn next to him labelled _good_ and _bad_.

                “Look at it this way. Kaiba always tries to make snap judgements and put people in categories when he first meets them. Not intentionally, it’s just how his brain works.” Yugi added, punctuating that with a tap of the pen. He turned the pad again to write a couple more things. He pointed with his pen to the _good_ category where he’d written _Mokuba._ “Kaiba has people that he likes and trusts.” Then Yugi pointed to the _bad_ column where he’d written _Pegasus, Dartz, etc._ “And then he has people he doesn’t like, and he doesn’t trust.” Then Yugi circled the third column that he’d added at the bottom of the page, under Kaiba named _Somewhere in the middle_ and the stick figure he’d drawn under it with a mop of hair that was _Joey_. “Then there’s you, Joey.”

                “So… he thinks I’m ok?”

                “Well… I don’t know. You’re staying at his house of his own volition, so I have to imagine you’re definitely not in the _bad_ category, but I don’t know that you’re quite _good_ yet either.” Yugi nodded it, as if he had just explained it entirely. Joey was still confused and stared at Yugi for a long moment in silence. Finally seeming to realize that Joey still didn’t quite grasp it, Yugi added: “I don’t think he’s sure yet.”

                “Wait, he’s not sure, but he’s letting me live in his house with him and his little brother?” Joey crinkled his nose, understanding the concept now but definitely not understanding the process of thinking would make that make sense.

                “Yes. Everyone he meets usually starts off in the _bad_ category unless they’re a little kid. He has to get used to you and decide what he thinks before he can move you definitively to the _good_ or _bad_ category.”

                “You think I’m actually… making friends with Kaiba?” Joey almost couldn’t believe the words were coming from his mouth, the word Kaiba and friend were so foreign to one another.

                “Yeah, that’s what I think.” Yugi admitted. “I was in the same place for a long time too, but I think I may have had an advantage because he looked at me as a rival, so we had something to bond over faster.”

                “Great, so he still thinks I can’t duel for shit, huh?”

                “Not necessarily. I don’t think he’s as driven to seek validation from you as he was from me, and I can bet you that a lot of that had nothing to do with me.” Yugi admitted, shrugging. That made it click for Joey, and he snapped his mouth shut, suddenly feeling a little ashamed of himself for forcing Yugi to bring up Atem.

                “What do I do then?” Joey hesitated, beginning to feel a bit like he was in over his head.

                “Give him some time… He’s warming up to you. If I’m honest, he’s probably struggling a lot because I know part of his therapy is learning how to not make those knee-jerk reactions, so he might be trying to decide where exactly you belong on that scale instead of just lumping you in with _bad_. I know he can be a pain in the ass about it, but he is trying.”

                “Man, you pick the worst person to ask to be patient.” Joey laughed, feeling like a weight was lifted off him.

                “Well, you do have a leg up. Mokuba likes you, and I’d like to believe he thinks of me as a friend, so the hope is that he’ll realize sooner rather than later that you’re not so bad.” Yugi returned Joey’s laugh.

                _Good_. Joey could probably pull off _Good_. That certainly was a relief, though, realizing that he did seem to be on good ground with Kaiba.

\---

                Kaiba was sitting in his office though he wasn’t quite able to focus on his work entirely. He’d already spent all his attention for the day, it seemed, and was now being plagued with the events of the night before. He’d made the executive decision to take a different approach, seeing as the _ignore his feelings about Joey until they went away_ route wasn’t working out the way it normally would. Besides, if he ever hoped to make any real progress, he had to keep in mind what his therapist had explained to him, and that meant dealing with those big “scary” emotions that he tended to sweep under the rug in favor of doing something he considered productive.

                And it sucked because he was already uncomfortable. Kaiba felt something akin to his skin crawling at the idea of trying to do this, and as much as he wanted to give up and walk away, there was no way this was going to go away while Wheeler was living under his roof.

                Kaiba begrudgingly pulled out a pad of paper, flipping to a free sheet and grabbing his pen, though he wasn’t so sure where to go from here. He knew he was supposed to try and figure out what his emotions were, but that was easier said than done when he didn’t remember what a large majority of them felt like.

                He felt like he should start somewhere easy, the emotion he did recognize, but he didn’t trust himself to write down _attractive_ as a start and not immediately burn the entire notebook in the fireplace simply to avoid having to face that as fact.

                Instead, after tapping his pen on the page, he settled on the next best thing he could think of.

                _Fun to insult_.

                Well, that wasn’t an emotion. He mulled over the thought further, trying to figure what about the statement was an emotion. _Rather_ , he was trying to figure out a name for the emotion that wasn’t _confusion_. Kaiba reached into his top desk drawer and pulled out his reference sheet his therapist had given him. It was quite literally a list of emotions, and it seemed to come in clutch for this exercise.

                Tentatively, he wrote a dash and then wrote _Amusement_. He wasn’t sure if that was an emotion, but the list said it was and it sounded better than confusion for sure.

                Ok, one down, about a million more to go. Next was a little harder—not so much in recognizing the emotion so much as just parsing that it was something he felt towards the other— _sympathetic._

                He had to stop and ask himself why that word came to mind with Wheeler. _Sympathetic_. He traced his memories back to when he’d started feeling that, and found himself being drawn back to the nights when he’d been picking Joey up from work at that bar, the nights when he’d have a drink or two more than he probably should have but would just listen to Joey speak. It was something he’d never really granted the other until then, and that was when he could say he probably first felt the emotion in any significant capacity.

                He’d listened as Joey had spoken about his life. About his sister going off to school and how much he missed seeing her, and how he was taking care of his father and himself. Joey seemed to care deeply for his family, and Kaiba figured that he must have found that aspect of him relatable.

                Oh, that was a word he could use! Relatability probably wasn’t an emotion, but it made sense to Kaiba that it could explain a lot of the feelings that he was having. What else?

                Kaiba tapped the pen on the paper, sighing as he thought. The exercise had managed to absorb him at least a little, and actively thinking about it made it feel less heavy to approach. He added the one that he figured would be the hardest, deciding that admitting to it on paper was more than enough acknowledgement for now and that was one he could sit down and explore in depth later. For now, he didn’t want to lose his current rhythm.

                Next was _caring_. He would have to care to let him stay in his home and to help him get out of the situation that was dangerous. He may have used Mokuba and Yugi as an excuse to start off with, but he did finally have to admit to himself that he didn’t want to see Joey hurt either. On some level that must have meant he cared a little. He had to admit that making these lists for the two of them had been considerably easier since he _knew_ how he felt about Yugi and Mokuba.

                He continued this for a while until he felt like he’d exhausted his emotional capacity for the time being, winding up with his list. _Amusement, Sympathy, Relatable, Attraction (Nervousness, Embarrassment, Aesthetic Appeal), Caring, Frustration, Confusion, Overwhelmed._ Kaiba hadn’t quite figured out all of them, having to lump a large chunk of his recent emotions as his attraction being a contributing factor to some of them, and some he was still on the fence whether he should attribute them or not. He looked for a moment longer before closing the book and setting it aside, feeling like he had a little bit of a better grasp on himself but like he still had no real grasp on Joey Wheeler at the same time. He seemed too have generated too many complex emotions for him to break down into bite sized amounts in just one sitting. He’d have to return to it later when he had a mind for it.

                For now, though, it seemed to have quelled the rushing of his mind enough that he was able to look at his work with fresh eyes.


End file.
